As of July 11th, we now have half our children 'married off' and the other two are sorted out in that direction. The weekend went pretty well with beautiful weather and the whole family together in one spot - neither of which happens very often. Sunny outdoor vintage wedding with even a 1959 Ford Galaxie to pose with, wonderful meal and lots of family to visit and chat with. The only slight bump in the road was….. the father of the bride. When the bride, maid of honour, bridesmaid and mother of the bride headed in to town to have hair and makeup done, he was left at home with strict instructions to arrive by 4:30 pm for photographs. At the appointed hour, I phoned his cell only to be told that he was a few minutes away and traffic was heavy. Oh really? When he stepped out of his vehicle, already late, it became apparent that he was not wearing his black suit, but a very tight brown pinstripe from years ago. "Where is your suit?" prompted the reply "I don't know, you must have not picked it up from the cleaners". That was easily countered with "I went back north after the cruise in September and I asked you last week to check on your suit". Spoiler alert - saying yup and not looking in your closet is not checking on the suit. At one point in the very warm evening, mister's aunt suggested that he remove his jacket and he disclosed that his belt wouldn't fit in the loops, his belly was twisted down over the pants and he might explode. On Monday, he arrived home with his black suit in a dry cleaners bag proudly announcing "look what I found?" Good thing the unretrieved clothes aren't given to homeless people!
The electrician daughter required current first aid/CPR so we arranged an informal course at the house on Monday. This included a fitness instructor/house painter friend of ours, another fitness instructor/esthetician who is almost a part of our family as a longterm buddy of the electrician plus her very cooperative four month old and our teacher daughter. We shared a quick supper and made our way through the material by the end of the evening. Painless.
The visit is always too short and so the electrician daughter was too soon off to the airport. We stopped to run some last minute errands, that is…. Walmart and Dollarama for the Cuban friends. A nice supper at the all you can eat sushi spot near the resident daughter and son-in-laws place and I only had to put one napkin full in my purse to escape the 'you didn't eat it all' charge. Home for the traveller to pack (never as much fun as distributing the goodies) and crawl into bed for a short night. Up and out the door before 5 am and the 20 minute run to the airport. A quick goodbye and I was on the highway and home by 8 am.
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| Dog days of summer? |
The next day as I was heading out to pick up a few groceries, I noticed the motorcycle ahead of me had an interesting
variation. My trusty dash cam showed a small white dog ? spitz in the backpack of the long haired greying driver. At one point the little guy looked over his shoulder as if to say "what are you looking at?" It is not unusual to see a dog sticking it's face out the window or even being transported in the back of a pickup but….a shoulder ride on a motorcycle? Rural living at its best.
The life partner and I (having agreed to weekly dates when I'm home) took in a movie (matinee so no naps) and enjoyed Trainwreck. There were enough sports bits to keep himself occupied and a real cameo by Lebron James who even I recognized. The next evening four of us 'ladies' took in Magic Mike XXL and as expected enjoyed it thoroughly. The dancing was even better this time than first one. Ahhh.
We gifted the aging couch to the newlyweds and purchased a new one - first from a store in
35 years - and thankfully we have a good sized living room as the trend is to large furniture. I gave the shore captain a choice of two to choose from (no way to mess that up as long as I could live with either one) and he visited the furniture store, ordering it - this because with the chaise piece it is either right or left handed and we required (of course) due to access/egress issues the one they didn't have in stock. When the very pleasant delivery team arrived, they were also bearing a small rocker/recliner - NOT what I asked for! A quick call brought the announcement "they don't make any other kind of chairs now". Oh really? The negotiated agreement has been for him to take the door to the man cave off the hinges and install the chair there next to his. I have ordered a grey chair cover for the remaining 'real' chair in the living room. We did however, follow the maxim that it is important to purchase furniture the colour of your pets. The magic geranium phenomenon (you did read that story in elementary school didn't you? it's the one where the gift of a geranium set on a table makes it look shabby so it must be painted, then chairs etc etc) led to the removal of the yardsale coffee table and installation of antique trunk with a lexan sheet as a top (if you have to ask what it costs you can't afford it but…perhaps I should have) so the redecorating continues.
The prodigal son and his girlfriend have purchased their first own place outside of town, so renovations are ongoing. He has proven himself to be an acceptable carpenter, painter, plumber and electrician (much of it from working on boats). He is not known for his finish work though, so his father has been installing the kitchen cabinets. They are getting anxious to move in and the boy to get back out on the water.
Have been continuing with my online course and enjoying the thought provoking material about sub Saharan Africa. I noted an interesting term was climate disruption instead of climate change and that is much more applicable isn't it? Change denotes a gradual shift and the environmental issues are anything but. The material is mostly video so uses up large amounts of data, which previously had not been of concern to me. Regarding the Eastlink cap I sent emails to the premier brought an auto reply, no response from our MLA and the neighbouring MLA stated that this corporation wasn't listening to anyone, even the premier. This after taking $20 million just five years ago to set up the Rural Broadband network. Of note, there will likely not be photo heavy future blog posts. My summer neighbour invited me over to eat cheesecake - yummy with fresh strawberries on top and we killed a bottle of wine. I was much more agreeable after that. We were invited out for supper and had a wonderful evening of food and conversation and so I got over myself.
This weekend we are into some stateside trip planning for next month as the concert tickets for August 15th - Huey Lewis & the News are joining Jimmy Buffett so there will be preconcert tailgating + + Tickets for the Nova Star ferry across to Portland, the Amtrack Downeaster to Boston and then retrace the route of last year on the commuter trains to a hotel near the Xfinity Centre. The teacher daughter and son-in-law will be in Boston that weekend (after hiking in the white mountains of New Hampshire) to take in ball games so we will join them at Fenway for Sunday's Boston vs Seattle game. May extend our stay a bit to conduct some seafood business but….with our Canadian dollar at such a disadvantage….not sure on that. The only stipulation I made to the travel partner was to pack one of his Hawaiian shirts for the concert and a Red Sox t-shirt for the game - we will manage the week with a knapsack. To add to the vacation planning mode here is a link to grabbing good travel photos:
Invited out for a BBQ tonight, so a pre-entertainment La-z-boy nap is taking place for the shore captain who was up very early to see a boat off on its first fishing trip after a two month refit and then unload a few others. Vacations at work are causing him to be in several places at the same time so he is looking forward to his 'turn'.
Walked the dog before it got too warm (she tolled lots of ducks across their pond and a neighbour advised the guinea hen chicks had hatched - from 26 eggs but I was afraid to ask how many of them) and have read some in the book I've wanted to read for some time - Beauty Tips From Moose Jaw by Will Ferguson and it is an excellent read. Other than that, I can't claim I've been very useful today. Oh well….Am aiming to use up some coupons for for photo books before they expire so must get my act together - maybe tomorrow.
I have surprised myself by discovering that I am not ready to retire. I had always thought I would retire early (hence the name of this blog) and most certainly would've if I'd been still employed in this province as it was no longer any fun, but this summer has taught me that I would go bonkers if I thought I wasn't ever going to work again. In fact having the summer off for the wedding/family visit and in anticipation of our Cuban friends being approved by the Canadian Embassy to visit us is stretching out ahead of me. They weren't approved and you can ask Stephen Harper why! I have conducted an informal poll and discovered that MANY different visitor visas from a myriad of countries have not been approved for visits. Appears it's easier to move than visit here.
So for the self improvement project of the day I leave you with this link:
