Gary's ramblings

We're off to "La Plus Belle Provence" (gotta practice my French) this morning to visit Sue's family. I know I haven't been posting much, I haven't been on the computer much, but in a couple of weeks Sue is sailing again so I will get caught up then, and no doubt have more adventures and pictures to bore you all with. Later - Gary

Sue got home Thursday instead of Friday and went back to work today, so over our long weekend, after a couple of days of catching-up, life returned to normal - as normal as things get around here anyway. Saturday we were working in the yard, the sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the dreaded black flies weren't nearly as bad as they have been in years past - life was excellent. We came in, Sue had her shower, then I introduced her to the Wii, and went to take my shower. I had no more than hopped in (ok at my age I don't really hop), than I heard her screaming, but the water was running and I was upstairs so I couldn't make out what she was saying. It didn't take too long to realize though, she wasn't screaming because she had just scored a birdie at Tiger Woods golf, something was definitely wrong. I jumped out of the shower (even though I don't hop, when I hear my wife screaming bloody murder, I still jump), wrapped a towel around me, and took off down the stairs. When I got to the bottom there was Sue standing in water almost over the soles of her shoes. I looked around and the entire basement was covered in water. Sue was frantically pushing waves of water down a drain in the middle of the floor (till then I always wondered why we would ever need a drain in the middle of the basement floor) and yelling something about the washing machine. I waded, bare feet slipping and sliding on a concrete floor, over to the washer and it was shooting water out the bottom drain hose. I'm guessing it had done the little washing machine jig it does when a load is off balanced and pulled drain hose off the bottom. I get it semi-hooked up, at least good enough that we can continue the clean up, and Sue and I look at each other and break-up laughing. I know I must have looked pretty funny, mopping the basement with only a towel wrapped around me, and sweet Sue, well you just have to know her. When she gets worked up her french accent gets a bit heavier, she swears just a tad, and is really quite funny. While experience has taught me that is not always the best time to laugh, it was ok because she was laughing as hard as I was. So we mop up the basement, laughing the entire time, and I pull out the dryer, mop under there, pull out the downstairs refrigerator, mop under there, then go finish my shower.

Next day is even more beautiful and we are back outside. I start building a deck off the shed and Sue continues working in her flowers. During one of my many breaks I went inside, and just as I walked in the door, I heard the washing machine stop. I took a quick glance around and saw the floor was dry, so I chuckled at yesterday's fiasco, threw the clothes in the dryer, started it, and went back outside. Next time I came in it was hot, muggy, and smelled like fabric softener sheets. The day before, when I pulled the dryer out to mop under it, I had pulled the vent hose off.

Yep life is normal again, and it is great.

When I first met my 3 best friends, myself and two others were taking a creating writing class from the third. We "The Core Four" remained friends long after the course ended and sadly long after all of us stopped writing (sadly we all stopped writing that is, they are very good writers). So the other day I was reading Mommyluvsliz blog (She has the most thought provoking entries) and it got me to thinking about some of the stories I used to write. Most were of a physco thriller nature and dealt with subjects like if we believe something to be true, then it is, and of course the plot would be someone believes in something evil and that evil would come to life and yeah yeah yeah, heard it all before. But thinking about it again (and again, at the moment I have way too much time on my hands) I'm thinking there is something to, some of it anyway, and I'm not really one to believe in the supernatural. Have you ever, usually as a child, (I think young minds are more free) dreamed you had a new bike, or something like that, and woke up and looked out the window to look at it? The feeling only last for a second or two but in that second or two you honestly believe you have a new bike. Or, and this is even weirder, have you ever sat and stared at an object long enough that you felt as if you left your body. Okay, Okay, I said it was weird but I swear it has happened to me. Of course I know that just believing in something doesn't make it so, at least not in a physical sense. I mean yeah, I thought I had a new bike, but it was never really there. But maybe, there is the physical reality we all deal with most of our day to day lives, and maybe there is a mental/spiritual/whatever you want to call it reality that we occasionally slip in and out of. And maybe some people have trained themselves through meditation or whatever, to enter this state at will, and maybe some enter this state unwillingly and don't know how to deal with it and are deemed by the rest of us as mentally ill.

Yep like the title of the post says, it just keeps getting weirder.

I'm going to Ohio to visit my family for a week, so I may not be posting much, (not that I have been anyway). It's been years since I've been back, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone, in fact, I have a granddaughter I've never even met. I guess I'm just not much of a traveler these days. While I was in the Navy I think I got tired of going and moving, so now I enjoy the fact that my roots have dug in and taken hold. Anyway, I may be posting while I'm gone, or maybe not, depending on how busy it is, but I'll write when I get back for sure.

Later

It has finally happened, cliche as it may be, spring has sprung in Nova Scotia. I always say winter is six months long here, November - April, Spring is May and June, Summer is July and August, and Fall (my favourite) is September and October. In these few weeks at the beginning of Spring, when it is finally warm enough to get out, and before the black flies, I like to do as much of the outside work as possible. (Anyone who isn't familiar with black flies, count your blessings, I had never heard of them before I moved up here, and let me tell you, they are a curse. When they show their ugly selves in a week or so, you will hear more about them.)

We live on a heavily wooded lot, at least it was heavily wooded before huricane Juan came to town several years back and knocked over a bunch of the trees, and we heat as much as we can with wood, because it is free, except for the manual labour it takes to prepare it. So I spend as much of these few days as I can cutting, splitting and stacking wood. It's hard dirty work and I love it because I get to play with my outside toys, the chainsaw and the axe. But really what I love is people, like myself, have emerged from hibernation. Our lots are a nice size, but not so large that I shouldn't see my neighbours occasionally, but since my old buddy, Kaboosi, passed away, and I don't go for our many daily walks, I rarely see a soul. Anyway, I took a break from working and walked over and chatted with my next door neighbour. I'm not much for socializing really, and maybe it is just because Sue is away and I feel more isolated than usual, but whatever the reason, it felt good and we rambled on about nothing for quite some time.

But ahhhh, the real sign of spring - I strung the hammock up. It was still warm last evening and I'm not in spring condition yet (seems to take a bit longer every year) so I was beat after working all day. Let me tell you, there is no nap, like a hammock nap

Have a great day.