IT'S DONE!!!

 Well Kevin, Elise, April, Myles, Monte and I all converged on the storage unit.  OMG!!  What an emotionally exhausting endeavour that was.  Initially I had thought Monte and I could do it but there would have been no way.  I would have walked in there, looked around, started crying and walked away.

There was trouble to begin with.  It occurred to me in the middle of the night that I had picked up my keys at home last thing, and made the fateful decision to leave them home as I have no van key on them.  But guess what is on them.  The keys to the storage unit lock.  Effadoodle!!!!!  So before we could even begin we had go to Princess auto and buy bolt cutters.  

I have a wooden sturdy round large container...like an oversized hat box.  I plunked myself down onto it.  Elise, an amazing helper!, would hand me the next box and I would sort through it.  She worked like a trojan!!!  And she slung the heaviest boxes around like a pro!

About the tenth box I opened had my native statues in it!!!!  I was so relieved and happy!  In fact there was quite a bit of native art.  I think I may keep this stuff.  Every box was such a huge reminder of Bill.  Most of the stuff I kept of his I am so glad I did.  One thing I kept is a lovely carryon size roller suitcase...full of his RCMP uniforms.  In another box we came across, randomly, a wee red shoe.  It was Jennifer's when she was tiny.  I never could find the other shoe but I have always kept that one.

  Myles or Kevin, I can't remember which one figured I threw out about half the storage unit.  As Kerry put it when I put that stuff in there I was just kicking the job down the road!  A good way to put it.

But it is all done now.  The storage unit was completely empty and clean.

Now let me tell you about the tetrising job Kevin did packing the van! Omg!!!  It is literally packed tight  to the tits.  The last thing to go in was Bill's stuffed fish!!!  It is laying across the top of the tightly ingeniously packed boxes right up at the roof. And all the stuff is coming to my house.  Sigh.  (shovel list). We do have a storage room fairly empty that we will put all the boxes in.  And from there I will sort again...maybe.....some day. 

 I gave April all the pics which I don't think she wanted as she has zero room for them all.  But she picked up an old old photo album with pics of Bill and his family going way back, and she says 'I am taking this.  Mom will just lose it.' or something like that.  Well fine then...you can be the keeper of all the pics.  Hah!!!  The only reason we still have all those hundreds of pictures is because they were not in organized albums, they were all in boxes in the cold room downstairs in the big house.  The one that burned down.  But the cold room was made of cement, did not burn and everything in there was perfectly safe.  

Today is turkey day.  There are a lot of people here.  Kerry, Kathy, the three girls, Drew (Emily's squeeze..awesome guy), Jo and Craig, Ainsley and Stirling, Auntie Dorothy and Uncle Dave from Seattle.  Uncle Dave turns 100 next summer and Auntie Dorothy is just about 90.  They are so vibrant and amazing.   He actually worked up until he was 94.  He was a psychoanalyst.  And Monte, April and Myles.  And they have an enormous table so we can actually all sit down to dinner together.  And believe it or not...we all get along super well.  No fights...no angst of any sort.  Lots of laughter and eating!!!  

The storage unit only took two hours.  Many hands and all that.  So around one in the afternoon they all headed towards Tunkwa Lake above Savana for a weiner roast.  Monte and I stayed behind.  I was totally knackered.  I am still battling the leftovers of the virus I had on the boat.  We are pretty sure it was covid.  Dorothy, Kathy's Dorothy, also had the same thing and is having trouble totally shaking it.  I did NOT feel well so I sat in the rocking chair, had a wee snooze and watched BritBox.  Monte stayed behind too.  His brain needed defragging so he had a nice long nap.

Now it is early early morning and I am waiting to hear people milling about so I can go upstairs and get a coffee.  Time to get this day started!!!

TFL.  TTYL

pics in a couple of days

MORE PLANS AFOOT

 More packing to do.  I am looking at my open suitcase on the couch.  There isn't even an inch in my bedroom to put it, unless I don't want to sleep in my bed.  I could put it on the bed.

I really need to sort out the summer clothes and get them packed away.  As I said before they are unworn and clean.  Then I need to repack it for the trip to Kamloops.  I don't know why this seems like such a chore.

I am sitting in my 'Fraser's Dad'sesque' recliner, complete with big hole (duck tape actually does not stick to recliners) looking at boxes of Halloween candy spread around on the floor.  Plus an Amazon box full of things for Ainsley and Stirling, and garbage and shoes.  Honestly anyone else would just be disgusted if their place ended up like mine seems to always end up.  (shovel list).

But...my kitchen is organized and clean and my dining room is all clean and table clear.  All I have to do is put the candy out of sight, pack a few things I want to take to Kamloops and empty my suitcase.  I will feel much better after that.

I think I am feeling guilty because I did fish out the bagged Mars Bars from a full box of candy that has nuts in it, thus the bagged mars.  I have been sneaking the odd teeny tiny Mars Bar.  Ohhhhhh they are so good.  My all time fave bar.  Always has been!  I'm not checking my blood sugar tonight.

So on Thursday we are on our way to Vancouver.  We are staying in the hotel we always stay in in North van.  Monte is going to a concert downtown that night with his friends Nordio and Graeme.  He will be coming back to the hotel and in the morning we will be leaving for Kamloops.  Busy week end happening up there.  Clearing out a storage unit, packing the van, trip to the dump, turkey dinner at Kathy's Sunday, on Monday Monte and I will finish up the unit and I really want some time to visit Anne.  I asked Kathy if I could invite Anne to dinner and she very graciously agreed.  

It will be a big crowd up there.  April and Myles, Kevin and family, Kathy's three girls and significant others, grand children, an ancient uncle and aunt from Seattle and Anne.  There is a hot dog roast happening on Saturday but I think Monte and I will have to take a miss on that one.  The whole purpose of going up there is to empty the unit.

One of my goals is to find the four carved native statues that were on Bill's funeral table.  I am dearly hoping they are in the storage unit.  I will put a pic below and if anyone of my family has seen them let me know.  Those carvings are the one thing of Bill's I really really want.

  I am also looking for a stained glass lamp I have always had in my kitchens.  I know it is in there.  I should really give it to Aryn...it is orange, her fave colour!

She had a friendsgiving last night.  She had fourteen people for turkey dinner with all the trimmings and more.  April and Myles were there and April said it was an amazing dinner and the most fun time.  It was a vintage theme so they all dressed accordingly and April said the music was fantastic!  Old school jazz and I think Bradley did a dj stint.  What fun!!!

What made me think of this is that they sent me a picture of the set table.  Half the table was vintage Wedgwood dinner plates and the other half was Noritake Nanking.  Both were Bill's and my dishes  originally.  I was one of the rare people with a daughter that actually really wanted them.  I couldn't pack them around with me, just wasn't practical so they have been passed to Arnie.  I am so grateful to have a kid that actually loves them.  So many of us boomers are getting rid of their precious dinner sets because their kids are simply not interested.  Times have changed.  Those dishes were in storage but now they see the light of day occasionally.  I will see if I can put a pic of the table setting below.

KATHY'S DOROTHY, ARNIE, APRIL, MYLES

Well thats it for today.  TFL and TTYL

=

 

A BEAUTIFUL TABLE

THE CARVINGS ARE ON THE RIGHT....TWO ARE OUT OF SIGHT..IF THEY AREN'T IN THE UNIT THEN SOMEONE HAS THEM...NEFARIOUSLY

THEY SAY HONESTY IS THE BEST POLICY

 Since arriving home and conversing with friends and family, I have been on the receiving end of a lot of sympathy for my ten days of sickness on our sixteen day cruise.  People have been so kind and caring, I have sucked it up and appreciated it all, except....

Time for honesty.  That cruise was one of the best cruises I have ever had and there have been a lot of them.  In retrospect I absolutely loved the lounging around in pjs, watching awesome tv and reading my many ebooks....taking advantage of free room service, even if it was sub standard.  I fortunately am not overly picky.  A tuna sandwich made with dry bread is still a tuna sandwich.  I didn't have to get dressed, the bathroom was ten steps away, Monte occasionally would show up with an awesome loaded plate of food from the buffet, once a day a lovely Filipino man would come in and clean the room, change the towels and sheets and take away dishes and garbage.  What on earth could be wrong about any of that I ask!?

Granted I will admit I felt super sick and coughed and sneezed my brains out.  I was doing a lot of holding my eyeballs in my head with my fingers but it was still a true holiday.

Thinking back over my recent life I find I am very much a fan of sitting around in my recliner, busy on my laptop reading or writing.  I spent many many years running around like a beheaded chicken from babies to teenagers to work to cooking and cleaning and teaching teens to drive to....well you name it!  It is time to sit and enjoy my sedentary life with no guilt or shame! 

 And I will let you in on a personal secret...I hate walking/hiking.  I find it unmitigatedly boring.  Even if there was zero pain involved  and fantastical scenery, I would hate it.  I remember as a kid I despised our 'family' walks to distant lakes and up mountains and down logging roads.  At four years old I remember asking myself 'why? why are we walking here?'

So I love love loved reclining on a soft comfy bed surrounded by umpteen pillows, over 300 ebooks personally chosen for my perusal, all you awesome folks out there at my fingertips to talk with, endless amounts of fruit (the fruit plates from room service were the best thing ever), double espressos also at my fingertips...sigh.  Name me one thing wrong about this.  You can't?  Me neither!!!!  Lol!!!

TFL.  TTYL

ALL I CAN SEE IS HOW UGLY I HAVE TURNED OUT TO BE!!!!  HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!  SO MUCH LESS WORK EVERY MORNING WHEN MAKEUP DOESN'T HELP SO YOU STOP PUTTING IT ON.  HALLELUJAH!!!!!