NUMBER 99!!!!!!!!

I just wrote poem number 99!!!  One more to go and I will have done 100.  And now today I am going to pick something new to do 100 times.  I'm not sure just yet!

Firstly, after reading the last entry I will do a little report on Monte.  He spent just over one week in the hospital psychiatric ward.  He had a very scary psychic break, which great parts of it he still doesn't remember.  This is what happened:

He visited Vancouver over halloween.  While he was here he made pretty definitive plans for making money with a friend of his.  He was so excited (to do with internet work) but about a week after getting home, it all fizzled out.  I think this was a bit of a last straw for him.  He has been feeling huge pressure to find work, and hasn't been able to.  Plus he has a foot problem.  Due to his tremendous growth sprint in his teens (he went from 5'6 to 6'8 in ten months) his feet were ruined.  The tendons didn't grow as quickly as the bones.  The bones in his feet are always fracturing, even with orthodics, and the pain is extreme.  Other than prednisone (which you can't take all the time) and cortisone shots (which only work for a few days) there is nothing that can be done.  He did go to his doctor and seriously asked if they could amputate them and give him those bouncy sport prosthetics.  They said no, of course.   He became depressed, which coupled with his already diagnosed (sort of) ADHD he started to hermatize in his house.  Long story short he ended up in what they call a psychic break (which we used to call nervous breakdown)

This is the part he doesn't remember.  He left his house around 7 at night.  He got into his truck and he drove to Campbell river (we know from bank statements) filled his truck up and then we don't know.  I was frantically looking for him by phone and his friends and the neighbour across the street.  I knew something was desperately wrong, which included some bizarre phone calls over the previous week.  I have to say I went about 26 hours not knowing what had happened to him.  I don't ever want to go through that again.  Ever.  About 9 oclock the next night I got a phone call from the Nanaimo hospital.  He had been picked up by the side of the freeway, sitting, by an ambulance and brought to the hospital.  They committed him temporally.  I guess he wasn't making sense, couldn't remember anything etc...They let me talk to him on the phone.  I calmed him down and got him to take some medicine to make him sleep and I got them to give him some pain killer.  All he could talk about was the pain in his feet.  Upon xray, they were all broken from walking.

The next day Bill and I went over on the ferry but we didn't get to see him...he slept for 36 hours straight, making up for not sleeping for about 3 weeks.  He also had quit eating.  I found out that he was picked up at an exit from the freeway near Courtenay.  I phoned his brother Kevin, who lives in Courtenay, to see if he could go look around for his truck.  They found it, out of gas, on the side of the freeway near the Port Alberni exit...the one he takes to go home.  He had gotten out and walked the wrong way...at least 11 kilometres.  He remembers that now and finally he just couldn't walk any further on his feet so he sat.  A passerby phoned an ambulance.  He thought he was going to the hospital to get help for his feet.  When they wouldn't let him leave he was confused.

His stay, and complete psychic work up was the best thing that could have happened to him.  He enjoyed his stay, they had a guitar and piano, and we got the working diagnosis the morning we took him out.  They still can't make a final diagnosis until some more brain mapping is done in January but it looks like bipolar/depression etc.  He is on meds to keep the dopamine levels down and I must say, this is the calmest we've ever seen him.  Oh, he is still the old talkative correcting Monte, and he is even more creative with his music than before, but there is a sense of calm about him that is new....and awesome.

So, tomorrow I take him back to Port Alberni.  I have hired an amazing neighbour (an older man and his wife) whom monte treats like a mentor.  This fellow is incredible and is so good for monte and needs the money.  He will keep an eye on Monte for us for the next few months until Monte is really back on his feet.

Okay this is way more than you ever wanted to know about Monte.  If you made it this  far, thanks for reading.  I will start writing here more now that all that is over and christmas is over too!!  TTYL

SAD WEEK

Its been a tough week.  Monte was hospitalized in a most scary bad way.  We get a diagnosis next Wednesday and until then I can't concentrate long enough to write.  So I will come back on Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  He won't mind my baring all.  I might feel better once I write it out.  til then...sorry for the absence here.  (I just wrote poem number 80.....I am now five behind, so more poems tomorrow!  TTYL

NOTHING

Really, I have nothing to report.  I did clean the house and get laundry done.  Sitting here right now in the chair I can only remember two things that happened since Monday.

One....we went to Swiss Chalet, the new one, for dinner.  And what stands out in my mind is that Bill nearly killed us five times on the way there.  His driving has become seriously bad.  Even he can see this.  I drove home.  Its like he suddenly has a brain fart and can't remember which pedal does what.  And, not that it was ever good with him, his actions by rote have completely disappeared.  No muscle memory either.  I think the writing is on the wall with him driving for much longer.

Two....we spent two days with April.  She had a couple days off and she spends them up here painting.  She is a lot of fun and I love having her around.  We talk and talk and talk and eat and talk and watch sick tv and talk some more.  Its awesome.  And the canvas she is doing right now would blow your mind.  Have you ever heard of trumpe l'oeul?   Its a type of painting where you "trick the eye" into thinking its real.  Thats what she does.  3D.  Crazy good!  I just don't know how she does it.

Last night we ordered pizza and the kids stayed up here with us for the evening and we watched tv and ate and had a great time.  And that's it.

We did have one interesting convo....about how we would still love our kids, even if they committed murder.....that being said.....I mentioned that if you are going to commit murder, let me pick who you should kill.  So then I had to think about who would be at the top of my list.  Firstly, I discovered, I don't have a list, not only that I couldn't think of one person to kill off.  Then suddenly, both Andrew and I said at the same time...."The assh..e next door!!!"  So if he ends up dead, hmmmm, don't show the cops this blog entry!  Off to the dentist now....ahhhhhccccchhh....THIRTY THOUSAND DOLLARS.... they better be the best teeth on the planet.  TTYL

AWESOME TRIP

We had a wonderful trip up to Kamloops.  It was so much fun seeing Kathy, Kerry, Stan, Jo, Craig and Emily again.  We had a lovely dinner with them on Sat. night.  Sunday we visited Mom, had a fantastic time with her, went shopping and back to Kathy's for dinner.  After visiting with her again in the morning we headed back to Vancouver.  The trip back was beautiful and we had a lot of fun.

Right now I am reading Margaret Trudeau Sinclair's autobiography out loud to Bill.  So I read for a while, took pictures and stopped in Abbotsford for a drink.  The traffic was at a dead standstill for over two hours around 176th street.  What the hell?  I had to pee so bad I thought I was going to die.  I did manage to make it home but I couldn't straighten up for about two hours!!  I had to go so bad I thought I was going to puke.

Now I am rearranging the living room to accommodate a Christmas tree.  Yay!!!!!!  I love getting ready for Christmas, baking, wrapping, cleaning, shopping.  Christmas is going to be great this year.  We are going to get up early and open presents, have a special breakfast then start cooking for an enormous delicious dinner.  I just talked to Bill's sister Jan and they are having 30 plus at their place for dinner!!!  Ours is surely not as big but we are going to have so much fun.  I am going to plan some surprises for all along the day.

THIS IS FROG ROCK.  BILL SCATTERED HIS DAD'S ASHES THERE MANY YEARS AGO

A WEE NATIVE CHURCH ON THE WAY UP

MY SISTER IN HER LOVELY NEW BOOTS SCOOPIN THE POOPIN

Now I must go and finish things up and get ready to go to Costco.  Yipppppeeeee!!!!  my fave store.  April is coming this time too which makes it so much fun.  I will report back tomorrow!  TTYL

BUSY TIMES

I have been away from here for a while and I apologize!  Its been pretty busy.

I have been to the dentist, then to a cat scan place across town to see how my jaw is.  He has told me my teeth over the next year are going to cost thirty thousand dollars.  THIRTY THOUSAND!!!  And you know what?  The day he finishes will be the day I have a heart attack or something and die.  At least I will have fantastic teeth in my casket.  Not sure if I am going to do it or not.

Both Bill and I went to the doctor.  He has COPD (emphazima) and my blood pressure is 190 over 90. So now we have to do things to make that better.  For Bill it means going to the gym and for me it means either going to the gym and losing 100 pounds or go see a specialist.  I would rather cut my eyeballs out than go to a specialist so this just might be the motivation I need.  We figure Bill got COPD from second hand smoke and allergies.  Poor guy.  But he will for sure outlive it!!

We have been to Oakridge, Apple store, four times in the last couple of weeks (have I even been home that long?)  Bought new ones, fixed old ones etc.....had lunch in a sea of Asians....which is totally awesome because the food in the food court is so delicious.  Wait!!  Thats NOT good.  No more eating for me.

Somewhere in here, after the cat scan, I had Bill drop me off at Aryn's and she took me to lunch.  Mmmmmmm  noodle soup.  We had a fabulous visit and caught up on all things needing caught up on. She then drove me home!

On Tuesday night Jay and Christine took Bill and I out to a fantastic dinner in Cloverdale in a place called the Vault.  Its a converted old bank and we actually had the table in the for real old vault.  It is just big enough for a roomy table and we got premium service and a fantastic meal.  Christine was as entertaining as usual!! and Jay was his usual interesting sweet self.  We really had the best evening with them.

On the way out, we swung by Cheryl and Bill's for an hour  (right at their dinner time too bless them) and had a wonderful visit.  I could just sit and listen to Cheryl all day.  And between the two of us, the two Bills had no choice but to just sit there and shut up and let Cheryl and myself rip.  Hahahaha!!!

This weekend we are heading up to Kamloops.  I really need to see my mom.  Its been way way too long.  Plus I really want to see my family.   We had a nice visit with Stan the other night but it was too short.  And, dumb me, I gather that its Grey Cup weekend.  Bill and I are not into the football at all and didn't even know!

I still don't have any pics to post on this computer.  That will change this weekend!  So I shall be posting a little more from now on.  TTYL

PARTY TIME

SO SERIOUS WHEN YOU ARE WEARING A GOOFY BRA!!

EWWWW   EWWWWW   EWWWWWW

I'M SO PRETTY OH SO PRETTY AND WITTY AND BRIGHT!!!!

SERIOUSLY APRIL??  YOU DID THIS ON PURPOSE!!!

PEEL TIME!!!

NOT QUITE DRY YET

NO!  ITS NOT SNOT

AHHHHHH!!!  THIS FEELS SOOOOOOOOO  GOOOD

I DON'T KNOW WHO TOOK THIS BUT UNFORTUNATELY THAT IS THE WAY I SLEEP

NO NO NO!!!!!

I bought a new wonderful computer but now it is truly testing my last brain cell trying to get it set up.  So far I managed to get the mail synchronized and iPhoto up and running, download bean and caffeine and facebook....well, it won't upload pics.  It just says error 2032.  When I google that and read all that they say there it looks like its going to take a lot more smarts than I have.  And that means I will need to go to one of my kids and risk scathing attitude.  "sigh"

Its been an amazing crazy few days.  The houses that the girls rented for Cookie's and my big 60 birthday bash were beautiful.  Galeano Island is pretty amazing.  We had so much fun I thought our heads were going to pop.  There were 13 of us, a ton of food, lots of booze, crazy games and so much laughter our endorphins were screaming.

I think we are going to do this every year from now on.  Not on Galeano but I think we have found a new place to try.  All will be welcome.  The only requirement we have is that you have no male appendages!!  Its so much fun!!

GUESS WHO THESE LOVELY LADIES ARE?

And now I am going to attempt to upload one picture to this blog here and see what happens.  If there are no pics then you know I haven't solved my new mac problem!  TTYL

MY LAPTOP IS BEHAVING BADLY

My stupid laptop is not behaving.  Its slow, glitchy and it goes black for no reason.  It stays black until I am panicking and then comes back on.  NOT HAPPY!!!  I am pretty sure the glitchyness is due to either iphoto or aperature.  Whatever, I am taking it in when I get home and I am buying that new macbook pro with retinal display.  And TONS of space.  I need lots of space.

Yesterday I went to the pool for one last swim.  When I was done I lay on a chair for a few minutes to dry off.  As soon as I did a young, very young, mom and little girl about 20 months came along and took a chair to my right, one chair over.  A few minutes later another well turned out lady about my age took a lounge chair to my left, with one in between.  I was listening as the mom get her little girl ready for the pool.  I kept hearing a clicking noise, intermittent and not regular but very frequent.  It kind of sounded like that metal clicking noise some canes make.  I didn't like to look so I waited.

As time went by they finally went into the pool, the stairs to the shallow end were about five feet from my head.  The clicking noise continued even after they were standing in the pool.  Finally, I was so curious I took a look.  She was SMACKING gum!!!  Seriously!!!  And she was doing it at a hundred miles an hour.  I couldn't believe how loud and fast the bubble smacking was happening.  And it was really really annoying!   After a while they got out and sat down and her smacking and snapping got even louder and faster.  All of a sudden the lady to my left looked over and said in a very authoritative tone "Excuse me, excuse me, EXCUSE ME!!!  Do you mind not smacking your gum?  Its rude and annoying."  Well little miss mom, whom we could see already had an attitude with her kid, turns and incredulously asks,  "Are you talking to me?  Me??  Well I can dam well chew my gum any way I like!!!  What are you?  The gum chewing police?"  Lady on left replies, "What are you? Ten years old?"

At this point my head is going first left, then right, then left...then straight ahead and I try to flatten down and disappear.  But no,  little mom spies me and says, "What do you think?  Do you think she has any right to tell me how to chew my gum?"  I took an obvious cop out and said "I don't think we should be talking like this in front of your little girl."  "Yeah right!" she says and glares at lady on left, who at that point got up and stalked down to the end of the chairs and lay down over there.  And I waited about a heartbeat and got up and skedaddled out of there.  Her smacking was driving me crazy too.  All I wanted was a peaceful last swim.  Oh well.

FROM THE FRONT DOOR

IT KIND OF MATCHES THE TILE IN THE REST OF THE PLACE

WE HAVEN'T PICKED OUT RUG FOR HERE YET

THE WALLS ARE NOT YELLOW, ITS JUST THE LIGHTING

So I took some pics of the floor.  We did get the place cleaned up, me going along behind Bill and redoing everything he did that was below his waist level.  He just can't bend over and so he uses his foot.  A wet rag on the end of a stiff foot that doesn't lift very far doesn't really cut it.  Its now ten am and we leave the condo at 12:30.  Bill is laying in the chair snoring to beat hell.  He spends a lot of his life sleeping now.  I hope to sleep on the plane, but probably won't.  Here are the pics  TTYL

FINAL TRIP OUT

We did go out to the church property yesterday and again I have to say, this is truly my favourite place on earth, or at least on Maui!  I will include way too many pics at the end of this and you will see why. What a wonderful day.

We left at ten am and it takes a full two hours to get there.  The trip out was, as usual beautiful and glorious.  The little road down is chained, but after talking with Don, we had no trepidation this time.  The last time we went out was with Cookie.  And as usual, Dino came flying out to confront us.  He has lived there for 35 years and he has managed to piss everybody in the neighbourhood off!  But we are very happy that he has put a chain up and puts the run on everyone.  As a result the property is pristine and deserted....perfect.  We talked with him for a while and he became quite jiggy with us being there.

We stayed about three hours. It was well over 90 degrees (about 30c) on that side of the island.  But....the trades were blowing so hard there were places we had trouble standing up!  I had brought a picnic so we had lunch, wandered around and I put a chair right out on the point in the ferocious wind and sat there for a very long time.  It was mind bogglingly amazing and beautiful.

A little thing I learned by going to Pachena Bay in Bamfield for years, and I mean little, was to take a thermos of coffee with cream in it to picnics or the beach.  I normally drink black coffee, but there is something about hot coffee, cream in it, outside, that is magical...at least to me.  So I sat out on that chair, in the wicked wind, drinking creamy coffee, in pure blissful peace.  Until Bill honked the car horn and scared the crap out of me.  I mean I was truly off in lala land, totally and fully oblivious to my surroundings except for wind, coffee and ocean.  Jesus Murphy!!  I flew out of that chair and, yes I shall admit it, I beat up and old stupid man.

THE LITTLE ROAD DOWN TO THE CHURCH

STILL GOING

CRAZY DINO

I DON'T SPEAK HAWAIIAN BUT...I WILL PRESUME DA'AINA IS GAIA

THE WIND SWEPT HILLS

I CAN'T IMAGINE A BETTER FINAL RESTING PLACE

THE WIND WAS BLOWING SOOOOOOOO HARD!!!!!!!!!!!!

OH GOD...I LOOK SOOO AWFUL

HAHAHA...I COULDN'T REACH THE BACK OF HIS HEAD.....

HE'S SO CUTE...NOW AND THEN...NO NOT REALLY, I AM STILL MAD AT HIM

THAT IS WHERE I SAT FOR MOST THE AFTERNOON DRINKING COFFEE

WHERE'S MY HEAD???

IT DOESN'T SHOW IT BUT THATS A LONG WAY DOWN  AND MY LET AND FOOT ARE ACTUALLY THAT BROWN...ITS RIDICULOUS  HOW BROWN I GET...ITS UGLY ...THEN IT TURNS YELLOW

ANOTHER AWFUL SELFIE....THE WIND WAS BLOWING THE LENS CAP AND STRAP IN MY FACE...MY FACE IS SO BROWN NOW THAT THE LITTLE FUZZY WHITE HAIRS REALLY SHOW UP...GEE THANKS

We stopped at Zippy's on the way home for dinner and apple pie for Bill.  At home I got half the condo cleaning done so that I would have time today to go the pool and have one last swim.  When the condo is really clean I will take pics of the new floor and post them in the morning before we leave.  HOME!!!!  Yay!!!!  Can't wait.  TTYL