12 June 2011
A Good Couple of Weeks
12/06/11 19:49
We’re going through a good stretch here. First we got an offer on our house, which we accepted. When it is all said and done we’re about breaking even on this place. Not making anything but WAY better than others are doing, especially south of the border. The only fly in the ointment is that the sale is contingent on our buyer selling his current place. This isn’t unusual though. His purchase of our place is contingent on selling his place. Our purchase of the Harby Rd house is contingent on selling our current place. The people we’re buying from have a contract to buy another house, contingent on selling the Harby Rd. house. It’s a chain of dominos. I suspect that any day now somebody in Montreal will buy a house and that will set off a chain reaction that will cause every person in Canada including us to move.
It’s going to be really hard to get a truck that week.
We also won a $250 certificate toward a replacement window. Now we just have to wait to see if we use it for this house or the new one.
Yesterday Ursula had the launch party for her new book. A bunch of us gathered in the media room at the Nanaimo Historical Museum. Mario and Jesse sang a couple of songs, Ursula was introduced, and then she read several passages from her new book. It went very well. The book is called
and see what happens
the journey poems
by Ursula Vaira
and it’s a collection of long poems and groups of poems about three big trips she went on. If you’re into poetry you might want to hunt up a copy. We picked up one and Ursula signed it “To Marsha and Doug, Fellow Travellers”. I know enough US history to find this very amusing though I suspect it’s unintentional on her part.
I ran across a great piece of music this week. It’s by another immigrant to Vancouver Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rRQcOKeP3I
And then there was the 62 year old lady they rescued from Frederick Island off of the north end of Haida Gwaii. (Formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.) She and a friend had anchored offshore and took the skiff in to the beach. On the way the boat sank. Her friend didn’t make it and she was left stranded on the beach. She survived for six days on her own with just a banana, a granola bar and a Bic lighter before a passing fishing boat found her. Canadians are a tough bunch.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/09/bc-haida-gwaii-stranded.html
This week promises to be just as good as the last. Monday is our twenty-fourth Anniversary. We’re not planning a big celebration, just a quiet evening for the two of us, unless there’s a game on in which case Marsha will be listening to the Twins and I’ll be watching cartoons. Nobody can call us overly sentimental.
But how does one stay married for twenty-four years. First I will tell you that it gets easier as it goes on. Seriously, the last few years we’ve both realized that nobody else would put up with us which makes it easier. And of course there’s a familiarity factor. Stay together with someone for this long and you just know what the other is thinking. Unless that is, if you count on knowing on what the other is thinking in which case you’ll be wildly wrong.
After this long you can also have fun with the situation. Like I pretend to not be able to fold towels. I remember one time I folded a whole batch in triangles. Another time I folded little boats out of the bath towels. Oh we laughed and laughed about that (or at least I did). And there’s how Marsha pretends that I’m not the funniest person she’s ever met. She denies that my every utterance is brilliant comedy gold. She rolls her eyes and sighs but after all of these years I know what she’s thinking and she’s laughing on the inside. For her part Marsha has fun pretending that the car is ‘ours’ but whenever it needs repair or gas it’s ‘Doug's.
Ahh, good times...
Probably though the biggest thingI’ve learned over the last twenty-four years is that when she says “Do you want to….” it’s not actually a question. Once I learned that, it’s been smooth sailing from then on.
Doug & Marsha
To spruce up the place for showings we have a bowl of water where we float flowers. Initially we floated big Peony blooms. After they peaked we switched to daisies.
The Lupin are now reach up to five feet above the lawn
We have our first strawberries coming in. should be a good year
We have no idea what these are
Nor these
It’s going to be really hard to get a truck that week.
We also won a $250 certificate toward a replacement window. Now we just have to wait to see if we use it for this house or the new one.
Yesterday Ursula had the launch party for her new book. A bunch of us gathered in the media room at the Nanaimo Historical Museum. Mario and Jesse sang a couple of songs, Ursula was introduced, and then she read several passages from her new book. It went very well. The book is called
and see what happens
the journey poems
by Ursula Vaira
and it’s a collection of long poems and groups of poems about three big trips she went on. If you’re into poetry you might want to hunt up a copy. We picked up one and Ursula signed it “To Marsha and Doug, Fellow Travellers”. I know enough US history to find this very amusing though I suspect it’s unintentional on her part.
I ran across a great piece of music this week. It’s by another immigrant to Vancouver Island.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rRQcOKeP3I
And then there was the 62 year old lady they rescued from Frederick Island off of the north end of Haida Gwaii. (Formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands.) She and a friend had anchored offshore and took the skiff in to the beach. On the way the boat sank. Her friend didn’t make it and she was left stranded on the beach. She survived for six days on her own with just a banana, a granola bar and a Bic lighter before a passing fishing boat found her. Canadians are a tough bunch.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/06/09/bc-haida-gwaii-stranded.html
This week promises to be just as good as the last. Monday is our twenty-fourth Anniversary. We’re not planning a big celebration, just a quiet evening for the two of us, unless there’s a game on in which case Marsha will be listening to the Twins and I’ll be watching cartoons. Nobody can call us overly sentimental.
But how does one stay married for twenty-four years. First I will tell you that it gets easier as it goes on. Seriously, the last few years we’ve both realized that nobody else would put up with us which makes it easier. And of course there’s a familiarity factor. Stay together with someone for this long and you just know what the other is thinking. Unless that is, if you count on knowing on what the other is thinking in which case you’ll be wildly wrong.
After this long you can also have fun with the situation. Like I pretend to not be able to fold towels. I remember one time I folded a whole batch in triangles. Another time I folded little boats out of the bath towels. Oh we laughed and laughed about that (or at least I did). And there’s how Marsha pretends that I’m not the funniest person she’s ever met. She denies that my every utterance is brilliant comedy gold. She rolls her eyes and sighs but after all of these years I know what she’s thinking and she’s laughing on the inside. For her part Marsha has fun pretending that the car is ‘ours’ but whenever it needs repair or gas it’s ‘Doug's.
Ahh, good times...
Probably though the biggest thingI’ve learned over the last twenty-four years is that when she says “Do you want to….” it’s not actually a question. Once I learned that, it’s been smooth sailing from then on.
Doug & Marsha
To spruce up the place for showings we have a bowl of water where we float flowers. Initially we floated big Peony blooms. After they peaked we switched to daisies.
The Lupin are now reach up to five feet above the lawn
We have our first strawberries coming in. should be a good year
We have no idea what these are
Nor these