36 Hours on the Mainland

All the pictures start on this page of the gallery. Depending on your view, they should start right after the upside-down dead alligator on my bed.

There's actually not that many.

Honestly, we actually just did a lot of... "Should we go for a hike?...nahh, lets just sit on the deck. Should we go kayaking?....nahh, let's just sit on the deck."

Where the hot tub was... just for jealousy's sake....

A Weekend For 'You'. A Weekend For Me.

Cabot's going on a jaunt next week to stay with his babysitting angel for a 10 days or so. I'm going away for a couple nights here and there in that time and I figured he may as well 'keep in touch' with his other family. I think it's important that he stays familiar with his 'other' home, especially since I know Marjorie misses him (and he, her, I'm sure) and I'll be leaving next summer for three months of training, at the very least.

The weekend after next the unit is going out on a exercise. Not sure where. Not sure what. Yanno, serious Army things. Training for Queen and Country.

The weekened after? That one's for me.

Sechelt.

Eva is on her way to visit a friend and I'm tagging along to get a couple days rest. Okay, just kidding, all I do is rest lately so let's go with..... I'm tagging along so I can get my body moving again.

We're going on the 20th of October so by then (dammit) my leg should be healed enough (or hopefully not rebroken) so that I can DO things.

And Vic might be coming too so while Eva catches up with her friend, Vic and I will do stuff and things, or, if not, I will do stuff and then sit around with a book.

Sechelt is a bit of a pain in the ass to get to.


*biggy me*We will be taking a train up the island to Nanaimo (inset is the island), catching a ferry over to Horseshoe Bay and then catching another ferry to Gibson's Landing where Eva's friend is to collect us and take us to Sechelt.

Leaving Victoria at 8 am gets us into Gibson's Landing about 4 pm. It's a bit quicker on the way back but the point is to enjoy the ride. I've been on the train up the island before and it's pretty breathtaking.


Sechelt has a lot of festivals and things and every year hosts writer's workshops so there is a veritable feast of beautiful places to stay. I chose Coracle Cove.

coracle n : a small rounded boat made of hides stretched over a wicker frame; still used in some parts of Great Britain

My suite (the bottom floor) includes a full kitchen & BBQ, three outdoor decks, hot tub on the oceanside deck, three course breakfasts and spa services on site (ie: in your suite).










Even though it's October, Sechelt is on what's known as an 'inland sea' so it should be pretty sheltered and cosy there on the water.






There are mountain bikes available and kayaks on site so I/we will be able to get out and about. I LOVE kayaking so I plan on doing a bit of that. Even if there's a storm, there's the watching of, and if that gets tiring, there's always the "Hey, get your ass up here and spa me, baby" option. Did I mention the ocean?



Even though right now I can hear the seagulls, smell the salt air and hear the foghorn on my very own portion of the Pacific...

I have four months of Manitoba to make up for and I have so missed the ocean.

Pictures.

There were still a ton of people I saw that I didn't get pictures of and another ton of people I didn't get to see at all. There were a million things I'd walked by every day that I'd never taken pictures of and should have. But didn't.

What there is of them, however, starts here.

One of my favorites. Tony and I. I just realized when I uploaded this that we've both got the same haircut. ha.

Back Again

I'm ensconced on the couch with a very angry cat.

And I'm exhausted.

Most especially because after finally falling asleep last night some freakazoid people who were trying to climb into the building with an extension ladder a door down woke me up and necessitated a call to the police.

ARG!

But I'll be back later to upload the pictures I took. Although there's not many. Best of intentions and all that.

Visitation

For many reasons, Mexico has been put off for now and on Saturday I'll be flying into Calgary for some downtime with my gang.

If any of you I haven't already 'spoken' to would like to grab a coffee, let me know.

I'll be around Sunday late afternoon to Wednesday night.

Fitting in the Pieces of the Puzzle, One By One

Just home from work and up again in 7 hours to go back for a day shift so I can head out to powerwash military vehicles for the evening.

Bet you're jealous that my life is so fun, hey?

No matter, today I think I found a free companion (well, free in the sense that I don't have to pay him but I still have to pay rent and all the bills) for the hairball of my heart while I'm gone.

And no matter, because if all goes well, I'll be winging my way towards Mexico in just over two weeks.

I know that I haven't mentioned a lot about what's going on in that area of my life and I probably won't. At least not in any sort of detail.

Those of you that were here during the time Matt and I were together may remember that I didn't say much about him while we were together. It was only when I knew for sure he was leaving and then, yanno, I fell apart.

For months.

Suprisingly Matt was absolutely fine with being on the 'net and in fact, he and I have a whole website we co-contributed to out there somewhere that I promised him I would leave intact.

Most people, however, don't like the details of their lives spread about the www and I do my best to respect that.

Just, yanno, in case you were wondering.

Eight Sides to Every Story

My culinary genius of a step-mother has been off work for the last year (and a bit) with a cracked something-or-other in her lower back.

She offered last week to track pricing for me for my trip to Mexico and has done an amazing job of searching out resorts and reviews, tracking them and their prices in a spreadsheet and picking up books for me to peruse. She did the same thing a few weeks ago for my little sister (her child) so that they could go to Cuba during their reading week from military university.

I dreamt last night of someone questioning me about her. Yes, it's true we had many MANY issues over the years, yes, it's true that even last week when she insisted that I had once told my grandmother I was a lesbian and no one believed that I would never have done that, and it is true as well that there are times when I absolutely loathe her way of 'helping', it's true that during many crises in my life she has not reacted the way I hoped she would - but in the end she has always been and will continue to be a major force in my life.

When I took Matt home for dinner, only the second boyfriend in all my life I had done so, she made all of his favorite foods.

Because I asked her to.

Last week she held up the family's routine to make me my favorite food.

Because I didn't ask her to.

In a very large way she communicates badly through words but fantastically through action.

I've always had a very hard time with that in that I used to believe in words and then I tried to believe in action (with Matt) before finding out that others can make you believe whatever they want you to believe. Or what it they want / think you should believe

No matter what I try and believe in - every single time it has broken my heart.

I don't think there is any way to get it right.

I have a ton of mostly resolved issues with my father but I can say, with all honesty, for the most part she made him happy. I'm not so sure that my mother ever did. The way he dealt with Quinn, my little sister, I think was in a large part due to my step-mother. Which, in a very huge way, highlights all the strange things my mother did that prevented any sort of connection wtih my father.

I have always tried not to be a bitter '1st marriage child' but there are times when that is unavoidable. Quinn has experienced things I've never seen. She loves our father in a way that was never even an option for me. Not only because of him, because of circumstances but because of my mother.

Sometimes, life is strange. Sometimes, the things we think as 'given' really aren't. Sometimes, people show their love in ways we don't understand. In ways we don't want because we assume certain things about love and how that is shown.

Sometimes, we just need to take a deep breath and see something from someone else's point of view.

To see what love means to other people.