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Category: Duncan

  • Breathing (Day 1)

    I’m in Duncan for the weeeeeekend. “Weeeeeeekend” because I arrived on Thursday and will leave tomorrow (Monday). Here there is the Duncan Farmers Market and “Hand of Man” museum (yesterday). And fresh tomatoes, beans, zucchinis, cabbage and etc. I picked two buckets of beans yesterday for my own personal use (“YES TAKE THEM ALL” says Dad.) Also I had to hose down my car while I was here because it was covered in ash. I used the scrubber brush while I was at it to remove all the moss. AND I watched the Canada/New Zealand women’s rugby game, which was gorgeous.

    My first deep breath of the day today was just a few minutes ago while I’m sitting on my bed reading. I’m sitting up against pillows, “lounging” so it’s easy to get a nice breath in. It’s not as big of a breath as I am usually capable of, but I’m going back and forth between being better and still recovering from being sick. Safely out of the acute sickness stage, for sure, which is good, but not entirely back to normal, either. We wait. And the doctor said wait, too, when I checked in.

  • My Weekend

    By Lindsie

    I went to my parents’ house this weekend for a pretty routine summer visit / restock fresh produce. I drove up on Friday night after work, supper, dishes, and a nap. I also had to pack. Which, I am pretty good at packing now for a weekend in Duncan; or an overnight in Vancouver; or a 15 day cruise. Or anything really. I used to make lists and sub-lists, and then a master list, which I fun but time consuming and I can just wander around my house now and through things into a bag. As long as I have the non-replaceables (medication; passport; prescription glasses/contacts) I’m not too bothered. (That’s a lie. I’m quite bothered if I forget a thing. But in theory (and in practice on a couple of occasions) I can just buy or go without if needed. In this instance I forgot the square plug-in part of my phone charger, but that’s actually not a big deal because Mum has a lot at her house and I borrowed one there.

    When I arrived, Dad was outside and stared at me in my car like some stranger had just driven down the driveway and parked in his garage. I, in turn, stared at him like I was inspecting sasquatch.

    “Who’s that!” he enquired.

    “Who are you?” I replied. It’s one of our classic bits.

    “OH it’s Lindsie!” he finally realized. And I, noting that he was not, in fact, sasquatch, felt confident in removing myself from my car.

    Saturday was busy. I got up early and put on my laundry (busy AND exciting, I should have said.) Then when that was hung out on the line, Mum and I went for a shop. Winners, where we found what we were looking for a and only just a few things extra. Walmart (same). And the dollar store. We had lists and found everything. Then a stop at Thrifys because Mum needed to buy a peach and one or two other things that were in the flyer, including liverwurst, which Mum is confident in purchasing with me present only because I am allergic to it.

    Saturday evening was BBQ salmon dinner and Bonnie and Scott came. Mum and Bonnie were in Disneyland earlier this month, and we got Bonnie’s perspective on the trip (I’d had Mum’s summary already) and also some ballet technique exercises.

    Also I found a reeeealy old bottle of Riesling in Dad’s wine storage and, after a controlled experiment discovered that it was really tasty. It went well with the salmon.

    There were no plans on Sunday, and me and Mum went for a swim at Maple Bay, and then for a little walk. And then naps. And then chicken dinner. with corn and caesar salad and potatoes. And then I helped Mum organize the bookmarks on her browser. Around 7pm when we would usually have our phone call we sat out in the pergola and chatted in person.

    Then today (Monday) I came home after filling my car with as much fresh produce as was available. And eggs! I almost forgot to take eggs!

    The end.

  • March 22, 2022

    It’s been a while

    I write today as it’s an anniversary of sorts. Most importantly, my birthday. Today I wonder when it is appropriate to start saying “I’m to old for this.” I turn 44 tomorrow so am I eligible? I feel I could give the phrase some comedic justice. However I need to know if I am actually too old for things or if it would just be ironic (due to my not acctually being to old for a thing.)

    One of upstairs neighbours sings and accompanies herself on a keyboard of some sort. I can sort of hear her in a muffled way through the ceiling if I don’t have a TV show or podcast on. She practices in the evenings, and sometimes on the weekends in the afternoon. She prettily sings pretty songs that I can’t quite recognize. I can tell it’s not a recording because sometimes you can just tell that. Notes and things. It’s been going on for many months (or a year?), and I recently paid attention enough to notice that she’s improving. Better notes! Go Upstairs Singer!

    Last week I was so tired. But not in a way that was disruptive? I would get home after work and dance (“my day”) and just be super tired in a way that was more than usual. Last Thursday I got home late with my Subway and got tired of chewing part way through the second half. Other days getting home late I would get upset and frustrated because I was hungry but too tired to think of anything, nevermind make it. (Thus the Subway on Thursday.) I was ready for a holiday, which was good timing because that’s what I’m doing this week. I’m on holiday – not traveling anywhere, just eliminating work from my schedule for a couple of weeks.

    Dreaming of travel, mind you. And planning for travel, eventually. I’m travelling to Vancouver this weekend, which I’m going to count because it’s the biggest trip I’ve taken in 2 years (if you don’t count the fact that I packed a suitcase when I went to Duncan for Christmas). It’s been almost 2 years and one month since I was last in Van. And 2 years and 4 months since I was on a plane going anywhere. Countdown. Or countup? What’s the opposite of countdown where you calculate how long it’s been since you did a thing?

  • May 24

    On this very day twenty-five years ago I had a good day and took care to document it in my journal, which is presented below. It’s from my first year of keeping a dedicated journal. The original is written in a 14-inch-tall ledger type book I acquired from who-knows-where. I have edited mildly to make it fit for human consumption. Context: grade 12. Some individuals have been redacted due to…. privacy concerns.

    May 24 1996.

    I had a good day today. It started with waking up and opening my eyes and… WOW! sunny day coming through my window! Wheeee! I leapt up and got a shower and shaved my legs and dressed beautifully in my yellow shirt and little floral dress and did my hair… Trey wacky [See note 1 below]. And I wore my anklet from [redacted] and my anklet from Leanne and, upon realization that they flopped up and down annoyingly when I ran up the stairs, I tied my yellow ribbon on above them to make them stop. And I had a hotdog for breakie, yum. The bus ride to school was nice. I thought about various things. The only thing that marred that was the Reform rally going on at the corner of Beverly and Lakes. I shuddered in digust. Anyhoo. I got to school and chatted with [redacted] for a bit and walked across the bridge in a prancy sort of way– I leapt from sunbeam to sunbeam, how they were coming through the window– . So we all had our little chat in the morning and then were off to class.


    English was long. We had to stay in an extra twenty minutes so Teacher could read John Grey, Robbie Burns and assign homework. Uhhhg. After we escaped that, me and Stacey met the WHOLE GANG at Phoenix Restaurant for lunch as planned. It was cool. We got there and there was my whole bunch of friends sitting at this huge table. ‘Twas cool. [Redacted], Merja, Sharlene, Leanne, Serina, Heidi, [redacted]. All there. I ordered a veggie burger and [redacted] gave those of us who are grad-ing our presents. I got a yellow bag with a little yellow book of pomes in it and a yellow crayon and a yellow balloon. Leanne got stationery. Merja got a little plaster angel. Stacey got an antiqued picture frame. Lunch was good. We walked sloooowly back to school. Sewing was ok. We had a sub so I just sorta sewed and chatted and wrote Maxine a little note on her binder. At break I went with Janice, who was hungry, to the bakery to get a fritter. I helped–she couldn’t decide which one to get. Anyhoo, after break I wandered over to the library to see if Merja was still there, she’d said she might, but she wasn’t. So I wandered back to class and sewed and dismissed myself 3 minutes early. I hung around with those who were taking the bus until it came. Then me and Merja moseyed over to the community center where Merja disappeared to wait for Leanne to take her downtown and [I waited] for my mum.


    When mum came I went upstairs and voted. I voted. Wheeee! Was thrilling. [See note 2]


    After that I went home and tried to Internet only to have the phone ring and Jordan talk for half an hour. so I waited patiently, only to get a busy signal when the line was finally free. So I cut things for grad presents. [see note 3] Sailor Moon was good. I think it’s the one I had to borrow from Stacey last time because I missed it for some reason, I think. It’s the one where Serina finds out that Reeny in not only from the future, but a princess, protected by the sailor scouts. So we can sorta assume that she is Serina’s daughter. There’s a great battle between the Scouts and the sisters from the Dark Moon with cool music.


    After Sailor Moon I went to sell tickets at Alex Aitken’s fun fair. That was fun. Merja came about half way through and we mini golfed and went though the haunted house and sold tickets and counted money and got tattoos and rolled the big die for licorice and had a jolly good time. And I had a hot dog for supper, yum. I wore my Sailor Moon pin there (one of them) and little girls noticed it. One asked if she could have it so I gave it to her. I have no idea who she is and she was kinda obnoxious. But it was cool.


    I watched X-Files when I got home and ate red licorice. But not too much.


    It’s after twelve now, so my wonderful day is over. But I am awake: the result of too much red licorice, I am afraid.

    Note 1: I had excessively long hair. I’ve edited out an obscure description of braiding it up into loops. And there were some beads, too, which of course make it trey wacky.

    Note 2: My first time voting.

    Note 3: I think this is a reference to the collaged folders I was making for my friends for grad. Mod-podge. Decoupage. You know it. And I just now remembered that I filled those folders with personalized poetry (?) and pages torn out from magazines (?) for each person. Song lyrics maybe?

  • 2011 by Lindsie

    January.
    Nothing. I don’t remember. No wait. I started a new job. Did I report on this last year? I started a new position with Liquor Licensing (BC Gov) on Jan 4, 2011, the same date I started with them in 2008. It was a pleasant reunion with everyone (there was hugs!) and I’ve had a good year working there. It’s nice to have a permanant job*.

    *For now**

    **Mum doesn’t like it when I add that part. Hehehe.

    February.
    Nothing. February sucks.

    March.
    My birthday. Everyone celebrate!

    April.
    Nothing. Oh! Except I moved at the end of the month, so I spent most of April worrying about that and packing. Fun story: on April 29 I decided that I Would Watch The Royal Wedding (as this is something that Lindsie is meant to do, having memories of the other royal wedding that happened in 1981). In order to stay up that late- the thing started at 2 in the morning or something,-I needed to keep myself occupied. As I was about to move, the kitchen needed that end-of-occupancy clean out, so I watched the wedding coverage while scrubbing out my fridge and pulling out the stove. I made it all shiney. My landlord was super impressed, and also amused with my Royal Wedding Story.

    May.

    Dance recitals. I was in two this year, since I was doing classes with two studios. Fun and all but I’m only at one studio this year so hopefully only one recital. This year I did tap with the teacher I had in Duncan (Nanna!) at a new school. We danced to Michael Jackson. That show was at Victoria Event Centre, where they serve alcohol. Note: performing at a place where they serve booze the whole time makes for a fun show, especially if you are late in the line-up. The other show was at the Royal, which isn’t as intimate as the other place, but has a really nice backstage area. Mum and dad came and watched, and my friend Susan, as I did some flamenco and ballet. Good show. We went for dinner afterwards.

    June.

    Nothing. Actually I think in June I went to Vancouver to see Wicked. That was with my friend Julie, who is my musical theatre friend. We both bought t-shirts even though neither of us meant to. P.S. I love musicals. They make me cry and want to sing along and I love them.

    July.
    I watched the whole of West Wing and Knitted. Summer! Also, my friends Amber and Mia visited. In our second annual summer fun time, we did fancy dinner, and took double decker busses, and went Craigdarrough castle. We also ate cupcakes.

    Aug.
    Some summer dance workshops. Some moping around. Went to work. Benefitted amply from the wealth of my dad’s garden. (Speaking of which, did you know you can buy green beans at the grocery store? Both fresh AND in cans. *Why Would Anyone Do This*? Doesn’t your dad grow way too many and make you take them?)

    September.
    Whined a lot.

    October.
    This wasn’t that long ago. I should remember. I got sick around Thanksgiving, which was also exactly when I took my vacation time. I didn’t have any big plans or anything, but I was Quite Annoyed. All year my health has been really good. My doctor suggested, though, that I’m now just catching everything I hadn’t caught yet. I’ve also figured out my asthma so that it’s under contol. I puff a puffer twice a day, with an “emergency” inhaler for when I need it, most importantly, just before my dance classes. Breathing Lindsie is happy Lindsie.

    November.
    Seriously. I bought flamenco shoes. I don’t have a couch yet, but I do have flamenco shoes. Priorities. I realize that this letter is rather dance-centric, but I think about it a lot. That and how I’m going to feed myself around all my dance classes. Two of my favorite things are dance and eating. Another favorite thing is watching TV but that’s not really something one writes about in their Christmas letter. However, I’m only writing this right now because there’s nothing on to watch.

    December.
    Hasn’t really happened yet. So far so good. I just vacuumed a bit. I’m trying to make my house clean and tidy before putting up Xmas decorations.

    January, 2012.
    This hasn’t happened yet, either, but I want to keep going….

    February 2012.
    I’m going to Spain to take some flamenco workshops. I’m also going to drink sherry, and do other Spain things. Spain has never been on my radar of somewhere to visit so I don’t know what to expect!

    And here is a bonus story .

  • Review of my first day of my new job: just spiffy! I just remembered I have to call Mum to tell her all about it…

    1/2 hour later…  I called Mum and I remembered that I forgot things in Duncan.  But I had a lot to bring, so it’s not surprizing.  I made the mistake of hanging my nice pants in the cupboard while I was there, instead of leaving them in the heap in my suitcase.  So I forgot those.  I also forgot some dips and cheese in the fridge.  I remembered the dip when I got home and there are chips here.  But where is the dip??  Arrrg!  I also meant to bring the remaining soy cheese with me because no one will eat it otherwise.

  • New Year’s!

    I am making resolutions.  They are as follows:

    1) Be nice

    2) Travel

    3) Wear skinny jeans

    4) Write in my blog every day more than last year semi-sporatically.

    That’s all I can think of for now.  Last year I made a springtime resolution to be brave, and that went well.  So you know, I’ll set goals as they come to me.

    Valerie (Naomi’s mom – N’s blog is listed at the side) invited me to Vietnam, so I could go there.  I want to learn some things about it first.  Like, anything that isn’t war related, because that’s the only reason I’ve ever thought about Vietnam, and even that isn’t very much.  More passive paying attention (media) than active engagement in the topic.  Not like when I visited England, which I spent much school time studying.

    I’ve been in Duncan since December 24.  Mostly eating.  I also went through all the junk I have left here.  I have three piles now: take with me, keepsakes, and recycle.  Mum says I’m just like the shows on TV.  I say those shows are just like me.  My recycle pile isn’t as big as I’d like, but to be truthful, much of my stuff was already pretty organized (by me! previously) and just needed a little consolidation.  What I had to go through were the boxes that Mum dumped my stuff into when she emptied my room.  (Which is where I finally found my tiara!) I have now a bunch of stuff to take home with me to use up (things I’d abandoned when I moved and hadn’t gotten around to again).  I feel consolidated.

    Other places I want to travel to:

    France
    China
    Antartica
    Italy/Greece
    New York/Eastern US

    Places I don’t want to travel to:

    Outer Space

    Places I’d like to return to:

    Austria
    Finland
    England

  • I almost remember, now, how letting a piece of writing “sit” for a few days makes it better.  I ignored my latest work just from Thursday and even just today (Monday) it doesn’t seem as sucky as I thought it was.  Just needed a little tweaking to make it tolerable, and now I’m going to ignore it for a couple more days.  And it’s so much easier to get rid of those precious paragraphs I thought were so great a few days ago.  It doesn’t fit?  It’s gone!  (Just from this version, of course, I’ll keep it in an earlier draft just in case.  I hate having twinges of memory about previously written stuff that is no longer to be found.  Granted, often I have just imagined that I wrote it down…)

    I got back from Duncan last night.  I took a day there after visiting Nanaimo due to train schedules.  Well, train “schedule” singular as it only runs once a day.  I took a long walk in the mud with my mum– that was through trees, and with the rain, there was a lot of mud.  Around behind the neighborhood through to a huge new development full of huge new houses.  Huge, puffy houses.  I am alternately disgusted that the trees are gone, and craving one of my own.  (These examples, however, were a little too huge.)

    I also read the Globe and Mail which makes for a pleasant day.

  • Funny Story

    I started knitting again in October. I then started buying knitting supplies, needles and etc. When I told my mum about this, she said not to buy any more needles! Because she had a box in the storage room I could have! I had mostly been buying the connected cable needles, anyway, and the box of knitting needles in the storage room pre-date this concept, as well as me. I don’t think I remember my mum knitting anything for so long as I’ve been around, but she did knit things before that. The big blue and green blanket that was in the TV room in the basement of the Port Alice house. Apparently, a hat for my dad. The box of knitting needles included three generations of supplies, from my great-grandma, my grandma, and my mum. When I was home at Xmas time, I felt that this box was something that I should now have. It is very satisfying, for example, using the double-pointed needles that my great-grandma used to knit socks.

    However. When I was home at Xmas, my mum found out about a book called “The Friday Night Knitting Club”. She didn’t find out about it from me, but I had meant to mention it. I’d just forgotten about it. Anyway, I ordered it from the library for her (mostly to show off how I could hack into dad’s library account due to him having his library number and password attached to the computer monitor… no one seemed to have noticed this though). When she read it a little while after I left with all of the knitting needles, she was inspired to start knitting again, and had to get some of her equipment back from me to do it. Neither of us thought that she would knit again so didn’t think twice about me taking everything with me.

    When I was home this weekend me and mum watched all her TV shows and knitted. It was lovely and restful. She made dishcloths (because she needs dishcloths and I made her one at Xmas and she liked it) and I made the second fingerless mitt of a pair (I made it twice because I messed up on the first try). We watched a “Bones” and a “Mentalist” and a “Lie to Me” and some other stuff.

    Funny Story #2

    While we were watching a “Law and Order” franchise show on the Mystery Channel, Dad called up Shaw and cancelled it (like he was planning and had to do before the end of the day which was the last day of the month). The service stopped just as we were going to find out who-dunnit at the end of the show Note: cancelling digi-channels is very quick.

  • I went to buy my train ticket yesterday by actually going to the “station” on Pandora. Only when I got there, a couple of people were using the agent to plan their cross Canada adventure. I stood there 15 – 20 minutes before the second agent decided this was too long to wait and stopped talking to her friend help me. This was just as the other agent was finishing up so it wasn’t all that helpful.

    Karma

    Standing in line, waiting to get on the train, an annoying child asking questions in a squeaky voice was queued beside me. ‘Please let him sit at the other end of the train’ I thought to myself. But no, he and his dad are right beside me. Lesson learned: indifference is key.