Yup, having a yard sale on Saturday from 9am-1pm. Skeptics seem to think that is too early for this crowd as many of them don't go to bed until 5am...I'm optimistic and I don't want to take the whole day up. I don't have tons of stuff, but enough I think to warrant a yard sale and I am hoping that most of it goes. I've got movies, books, knicknacks, kitchenware, and all sorts of odds and ends...I hope it doesn't rain.
So I was informed this week by a health professional that I need to make some major changes in my lifestyle or I shall be risking development of diabetes - that I was pre-diabetic. I didn't know you could be pre-diabetic, but apparently you can. Hmmm...that was troubling. My bad habits have finally caught up wth me.
I have slowly been trying to integrate changes in my diet for months now, with some success. I switched from white bread to whole grain, switched from regular tortilla chips to whole grain (they are actually not bad at all), have all but given up soda, have committed to buying more fruit and veggies, and choose a fruit snack at least once a day, have been drinking much more water, etc. Now I have to begin to exercise. I have been SUPER LAZY for many months now...driving everywhere, or not going at all. Sheesh...
In anticipation of wanting to go out walking, I had ordered an mp3 player from eBay, a nice SanDisk Sansa 250. I looked at the iPods, decided they were over rated and not worth the big bucks, and went for something more than half the price. Sweet little unit arrived today and I spent the evening loading songs onto it. Then me and the boys (John, Jimi, James, Jack, and Jim) went for a walk about town. What a difference it makes to have music along. The last time I had gone walking with music was with a clunky disc man that skipped, and I always got sick of the one or two cds I brought along. Now I have about 300 songs loaded on, with plenty of room for more. Who'd a thunk it...
This is my second night out walking at 10pm and so far, so good. I'm not winded by the time I return, though I know I am walking briskly enough to break a good sweat. And no one has thrown beer cans at me, or tried to run me down - yet. There are a number of cripples here from being hit by cars locally, and plenty of drunk/cracked out drivers...it's a risk...but for now I'll take it and see what happens. For the most part, everyone I've seen has either given me a nod, a hello, or a wave. Good start for me and the boys...
Took my car into a car wash in Yellowknife last week while visiting...that was interesting. It was formerly a coin carwash, but the immigrants who run it found a way to make even more money from me by computerizing the water use, but still offer a shitty car wash. The "soap" function had no soap, and the hose was covered in tar...as was the floor. Some dirty bastard had obviously brought his truck in there and made a fine mess of it. I managed to get it all over both hands, arms, legs, sandals, the pedals of my car, the mat on the driver's seat...you name it. And when I attempted to complain about it to the Asian lady taking my money, her response was "twelve dollah!". Um, what? Your hose is full of grease and I need something to clean it off. "twelve dollah!". Ok lady, LOOK at the grease all over my hands. I am NOT getting back into my car with grease all over me. So she hands me dry paper towels. Like that is gonna work on tar. I couldn't get through to her that it was all over the hose and that she needed to get some cleaner to get the tar off it, and should clean the floor with something. I had tried the spray from the hose, but it didn't do a damn thing to get tar off. Sigh...I miss English.
I went to the carwash to clean my car and came out filthy. Great. I tried everything from wet naps to glass cleaner to armorall to dish liquid to hand soap and finally what took it off was one of my friend K.'s wax remover pads - real oily. Dammit.
Life is dull these days...no real highs or lows - nothing to write about here...sorry to bore you...other than the red lined washing maching (I dyed a shirt) nothing noteworthy has happened this week...perhaps life will pick up after a few days up north (leaving Wednesday)...
Even Stormy is dull...other than puking for the second time since I've had him...
Can't say the same for this interesting outcome - a 13-yr old girl convicted of multiple counts of first degree murder today...certainly unusual. Her life is anything but dull...
Apple Computers announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play music in women's breast implants. The iBoob will cost between $499 and $599. This is considered to be a major breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.
Thanks to Apple, now everyone will be happy.
I haven't lived in town for a few years, and was liking it that way, but when I moved here, there were few choices...now I get to be serenaded by mournful dogs howling, to have my television drowned out by my neighbor's gas powered weed whacker, and to wipe the clouds of dust off everything in my house due to trucks and ATV's roaring by my trailer.
I've taken to wearing ear plugs most nights, due to the racket my neighbor's dogs make...howling, barking, whining...you name it. And I wear a sleep mask due to the extended daylight of living up north. I have a fan/air purifier on in my room next to my bed to provide air because my screens are mostly ripped and I can't open many windows...I'm in my own little bubble in there...
Oh the joys of living in town.
My friend K. and I had planned to go camping this weekend, but then she buggered off back east (love ya K.!) for a month so I am without a camping buddy...and I don't particularly like camping alone...not without a dog or a gun...
Was supposed to go out in the boat today with some locals, but for whatever reason, the plans never materialized...we were to meet at 9am and the ones with the boat aren't answering the phone or the door...weird...so those plans are a bust - after I made some burgers and salad for the day too...well, know what I have for supper now...
There are other events on for the weekend...a BBQ down the street at the preschool in celebration of 10 years for the Child Care Initiatives...might go check that out today...free food and all, lol....and tomorrow is Canada Day so there will be some events for that, including a parade! Yeee haw...haven't heard about any fireworks...hard to see since it doesn't get dark here now anyhow.
I reckon there will be camping later this summer, if I can hook a camping buddy...
It seems like a soap opera sometimes...life can be crazy busy and before you know it, so much has happened. I've been on "vacation" for the past 2 weeks, and am pretty darn tired. I came down to visit with my parents, mostly because of my dad's health issues, and haven't stopped much to relax! After the 4 days of travel to get here, I spent a week at my parents, and was a busy little beaver - scanning photo albums of childhood memories and burning them to disc; packing up slides and dad mailed them off to my place in the north (with the intention of me getting a slide scanner to process them all); did some maintenance on a number of local computers, including my parent's two, which took hours to clean up the messes; took a ton of photos with my new camera, burned them off; took my dad out for a walking video tour of the small community, accumulating about 50 video clips of him telling me an oral history of the area, homes, people, etc; and I did much of the cooking, wanting to BBQ for my parents and I, as they look forward to that treat when I come home.
That was the first week. Then my dad got a call to see a specialist for his then undiagnosed health issues, which was in another province. So we packed up and headed to the big city of Halifax (compared to hometown of population 24 or so) and spent the week there - and getting there isn't just jumping on a plane, or car and in a few hours you're there...it's catching the ferry early in the morning for a 3 hour run up the coast, then a 45 min drive by car to catch the car ferry across the Gulf of St. Lawrence (a 5-7 hour journey, depending), then a 5-6 hour drive to Halifax the following day. The week was busy with doctor's appointments, CT scans, and of course - shopping - my mother and I live in isolation so shopping is a MUST! Then after partial diagnosis - polymyalgia rheumatica, we headed back from Halifax to North Sydney with a couple of stops to visit with family along the way, and across the Gulf again. Got in yesterday morning, and a stop at the hospital to see family doc, and my dad was advised to turn around and head back to Halifax for the second diagnosis (he has two seperate conditions) which was vasculitis, which resulted in a blockage in the major artery of his left arm. Both are treatable conditions, but needs the supervision of the specialist and further testing to monitor the treatment plan, and watch for complications.
So I packed them up again and dropped them off at midnight to cross the Gulf to North Sydney, where they were met by relatives and spirited away to Halifax area once again. Dad will see the specialist tomorrow and begin the treatment for the second condition, which is likely a doubled dose of his steriodal treatment for the first condition as they are quite related, and will respond to the same drug.
Today I had to take a run down the coast by auto to meet the coastal ferry and put some things aboard for people in the hometown, and back up again. Now I'm all packed up and have to hit the road tomorrow morning early, catching the bus to Deer Lake where I'll fly out from on Tuesday - in the air all day, then drive home from there (9 hours north).
No wonder I'm tired. I need another vacation, this time just at home...having said that, I am glad I could be here to be of assistance to my parents at this crazy time, and get in to talk with the doctors myself and hear what was being said. With both parents partly deaf, and one blind, I never know if I am getting the proper version when filtered by phonecalls to me in the north. I am also very glad to have spent such quality time with my dad, which was what my visit back east was mostly about. I hadn't been home in 2 years, so was long overdue for a visit.
Thursday is a holiday (Aboriginal Day) so I think I shall do ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
Something to think about as you send your cherished children off to camp this summer...heh heh...
Dear Mom & Dad,
Our Scoutmaster told us to write to our parents in case you saw the flood on TV and are worried. We are okay. Only one of our tents and 2 sleeping bags got washed away. Luckily, none of us got drowned because we were all up on the mountain looking for Adam when it happened.
Oh yes, please call Adam's mother and tell her he is okay. He can't write because of the cast. I got to ride in one of the search and rescue jeeps. It was neat. We never would have found Adam in the dark if it hadn't been for the lightning.
Scoutmaster Keith got mad at Adam for going on a hike alone without telling anyone. Adam said he did tell him, but it was during the fire so he probably didn't hear him. Did you know that if you put gas on a fire, the gas will blow up?
The wet wood didn't burn, but one of the tents did and also some of our clothes. Matthew is going to look weird until his hair grows back.
We will be home on Saturday if Scoutmaster Keith gets the bus fixed. It wasn't his fault about the wreck. The brakes worked okay when we left. Scoutmaster Keith said that with a bus that old you have to expect something to break down; that's probably why he can't get insurance.
We think it's a neat bus. He doesn't care if we get it dirty and if it's hot, sometimes he lets us ride on the fenders. It gets pretty hot with 45 people in a bus made for 24. He let us take turns riding in the trailer until the highway patrol man stopped and talked to us.
Scoutmaster Keith is a neat guy. Don't worry, he is a good driver. In fact, he is teaching Jessie how to drive on the mountain roads where there isn't any cops. All we ever see up there are logging trucks.
This morning all of the guys were diving off the rocks and swimming out to the rapids. Scoutmaster Keith wouldn't let me because I can't swim, and Adam was afraid he would sink because of his cast, it's concrete because we didn't have any plaster, so he let us take the canoe out. It was great. You can still see some of the trees under the water from the flood.
Scoutmaster Keith isn't crabby like some scoutmasters. He didn't even get mad about the life jackets. He has to spend a lot of time working on the bus so we are trying not to cause him any trouble.
Guess what? We have all passed our first aid merit badges. When Andrew dived into the lake and cut his arm, we got to see how a tourniquet works.
Steven and I threw up, but Scoutmaster Keith said it probably was just food poisoning from the leftover chicken. He said they got sick that way with food they ate in prison. I'm so glad he got out and became our scoutmaster. He said he sure figured out how to get things done better while he was doing his time. By the way, what is a pedal-file?
I have to go now. We are going to town to mail our letters & buy some more beer and ammo. Don't worry about anything. We are fine and tonight it's my turn to sleep in the Scoutmaster's tent.
Love, Jimmie
Since arriving on the Rock for vacation, my head has been pounding most of the day. I'm not sure which is the culprit, but I have three suspects I believe - the difference in barometric pressure from NWT to NL is considerable, and with the foggy weather this week, I'm sure it's affecting my head. After all, it is a big goddamn head. Another possible suspect is the fact that both my parents are partially deaf and the volume of both voice and electronics are LOUD...particularly the former...and the final suspect is likely that I am sharing space with a blind woman and feel like I am walking on the face of the sun in the 5000+ watts of artificial light.
Whatever the case, my head is still pounding and now I have the damn hiccups...whine.....
My daughter turned 21 yesterday...where did the time go? I've been a mother now for over half my life. And with us living in different parts of the country, I didn't get to spend her birthday with her this year. We were together last year as we were sharing a cabin in the woods. Now she's legal in all 50 states - she plans to go to Alaska (neighboring state) and order herself a drink.
When I look back at where I was in life, 21 years ago...so much has changed, so much has happened. I feel old.
I'm on vacation...and so is this blog. Until I have something to rant about...stay tuned...I'm sure it won't be long...
