For those that are able to come, we will be having a BBQ somewhere between 5 and 6pm.  We are planning on erecting a slide structure thingy for the twins that day, so anyone that wants to come early and help out is more than welcome.  Greg plans to have a chunk of it ready to go, so it will just be assembling the thing.  Let us know if you plan to come early!

Suggestions for presents for the boys are as follows:

There are 2 donation funds set up for both William and the twins that are located on this blog site.  The top ‘DONATE’ button is to donate to Williams piano fund.   He has decided to go the conservatory route and needs to upgrade his piano.  While we don’t expect to have this ready for the party (as it will likely take a bit to actually save up for it) William is quite aware of what is going on and is cool with the idea of people pitching in.  If however, you already have something or mind that’s great, or here are some different ideas:

itunes gift cards, xbox gift cards, clothes.

The twins also have a donation fund set up for their play structure which is also located on this blog site - the bottom ‘DONATE’ button.  We are adding on to the current swing set so if you’d like to contribute to this, they would be tickled pink.  They have just learned the fine art of climbing fences, clambering up on to the change table and the like, so this should give them something that they can actually climb without being squawked at!  And, they get to fling themselves down a slide once they’ve got to the top.   Yay!  Again, if you already have something in mind that’s great or here are some different ideas:

PJ’s, sturdy trucks etc for the sandbox, engines for their Thomas The Tank Engine wooden train set or additional buildings.  They do have some engines and buildings so give me a shout first before buying anything if you go this route

So far I think that it’s just Philip and Cynara that are tied up with another event on this day, and Selam who has to work, but otherwise we should have a full house.  Here’s hoping that by then we have some finer and warmer weather!

If you have any questions about anything, please let Greg or me know!

xoxoxo

My lovely in-laws, being the charming and thoughtful creatures that they are, decided as a Christmas present to give me a gift certificate for a slew of pampered delights at an establishment in Morrisburg.  Now one may sniff at the use of the word ‘Morrisburg’ but it does actually house the odd business worth mentioning….I think there’s a nifty law office in town if I remember correctly….

At any rate, said in-laws also offered to take the wee sprogs whilst the pampering took place so that I could really enjoy the experience.  It’s hard to match the words ‘pampering’ and ‘twins’ together you see.  Well, being the opportunist that I am I of course said yes!  Just like that.  Yes!

Trying to get a date organised was another matter.  Both the fair and lovely Eleanor and I are working gals and both of us also have a bit of a life outside of work.  Nevertheless we penciled in a date and lo and behold if the day didn’t creep up on me.  Undaunted by the fact that we were supposed to be battling the elements - ice rain be damned! - I drove off with the twins and half of their belongings, they contentedly burbling away in the back seat.

Once at my fair in-laws, I unloaded the car in 3 trips and was so worn out I had to sit down for a spell.  Well, not really.  I did unload the car in 3 trips but then hung around just to make sure that everyone settled in nicely.   C’mon!  I’m not that out of shape!  I was then off to Morrisburg with Santogold (thanks Eric!) screaming in my ears.

Well, what can I say?  I was greeted warmly when I got there and made to feel relaxed as soon as I kicked off my shoes.  At this point I thought to myself “hey ho!  I think I might move in!”.  I answered a few questions so as to relieve them of any misconception that I might pop off during one of the treatments and was lead to the sauna room.

Now, the last time I had a sauna experience, it was with drink in hand, steam in eyes and an ungodly amount of sweat dripping off me.  It was not pretty and as I was dehydrating myself instead of hydrating myself, probably not the smartest adventure.   Sauna’s have changed a bit and this one was an infrared type.  No steam but still the heat and a bucket load of sweat.  I sat in my cubicle with soothing tunes in my ears and picked orange lights to beam down on me.  Depending upon what you want to deal with - hormone problems?  sleep disorders?  headaches? - you could pick a light colour to help.  Orange is a lively colour and dammit, I just wanted to feel lively and cheery at the end of it all.  After half an hour I was hot, sweaty, relaxed and yet feeling high-spirited.  (I have since decided that I want to own one of these once I win the lottery.)  I was told to have a shower and to slip into the provided bathrobe and then off to Door #2.

To be honest, I have had a couple of massages before; both since the twins have arrived oddly enough.  Both have been fine and by that I mean that it felt nice at the time but beyond that there was no life-altering experience to be had.  This time however, it was different.  I don’t know what the hell she did, but I got up off of the table at the end, a changed woman.   My neck felt amazing.  My shoulder felt amazing.  I wondered where the 45 minutes had gone to.  I am still - as I write this - feeling amazingly un-stiff…de-stiffed?  Sans le stiff?  Whatever she did, the woman is a marvel!  (I have since decided that I want to own one of these once I win the lottery.)  She told me to get up at my leisure (I wish I heard THAT more often at home!) and to head to the next room.

Behind Door #3 lay a container of hot paraffin and a woman offering me champagne and chocolates.  Holy fall-in-love Batman…..did somebody say CHOCOLATES?  What ho!  I had my feet wrapped in hot paraffin paraphernalia  and my hands full of drink and chocolate and I think that she could tell  I was really feeling very cheerful by this point because I’m pretty sure  that I was welling up with tears of joy.

I was by this point understandably smitten with what had just happened and extremely thankful that I look like someone who needs a relaxing, pampering experience.  After pulling myself together,  I bade farewell to the ladies and headed back to retrieve the twins, feeling very content.  My lovely in-laws made a fine choice of a gift; extremely thoughtful and totally terrific.  I think they might have got the idea that this was the case when I couldn’t stop enthusing about it.  No, I don’t get out too often, it’s true!

Now I am going off to bed one cheery, relaxed, soft-footed and happy woman

Why am I sitting about like Lady Muckbucket while those piles of ‘things to do’ wave at me yelling “cooey, don’t forget about us or you’ll regret it!”?  Well.  I have a cold.  And it’s one of those colds that insists on making me feel like I’ve climbed a very large mountain wearing ballet slippers for traction; I am wiped out.

I’ve actually been sick since I got back home from the UK just before Christmas.  At that point I was feeling fairly run down due to the Christmas season with the business, the boy’s activities and trying to organise a quick trip to the UK for my Grandad’s funeral.  Never mind the trip itself and the time change adding insult to injury.  I was worn out over the holidays and have seemed to have picked up anything that’s going around.  I’m like a prostitute that way

And so today finds me sitting for the most part.  It’s quite a novel experience.  And I must be worn out, because I simply don’t give a toss about all of the things that need to be done yet.  They are in the back of my foggy head and I’ve just told them to bugger off for the time being.  For today at least, I am going to enjoy the self-imposed rest; I can go back to charging around and worrying tomorrow!

A.

I have been enjoying my time at the bank in a strange kind of way.  I don’t think it’s necessarily the banking itself that I enjoy (although that has to be part of it otherwise work would be wretched), I think it’s the ability to interact with people that I quite like.  Admittedly, it’s a little difficult to hold a full conversation with anybody there for obvious reasons, but it is nice to see the same faces and to hear the latest bit of news and to actually start caring a little about some of them.  There are quite a few that I couldn’t care if I ever saw again but we all know people like that in all spheres of our lives right?   Admittedly I’ve been finding that of late, I quite like the challenge of dealing with those sorts.  The Amanda of old wouldn’t have bothered to tolerate anybody that caused her to want to punch them; the new Amanda just wonders what got this person to be such a cranky, sad and miserable creature.

I don’t know that I add much to the banking world in terms of sales and volume growth.  I’m not going to make branch manager anytime soon - nor would I want to - as I’m just not that ambitious.  I’m quite happy plodding along like this and doing my little bit and then heading home.  As of late however, I have felt a little unhappy with having to be there at all as it has just been so horrendously busy at home with the business.  I have to keep that feeling of resentment in check when I’m there thinking about all of the things I have yet to complete before the day is done.  It’s not fair to my fellow employees or the customers if I’ve got bloody tin on my mind and not their needs!  It’s an odd dynamic because I also feel a bit of resentment towards the business for intefering with my bank job.  Both are important to me so I’m working through thinking about what the jobs are and what they do for me as a whole rather than focusing on the negatives.  Part of human nature I suppose to deal with the negatives before the positives.

While I have been extremely, extremely busy over the past 3 months and do have something to show for it in terms of renumeration, it just hasn’t felt very satisfying.  I am putting it down to just being too plain worn out to really see it.  I’ve had a lot of positives thrown my way at work and they’re a great bunch to work with - I haven’t ever worked with a team like this before…it’s totally foreign to actually get along. The business has been ticking along but we’ve got lots to work on for next year and while we were extremely busy this seaon, we fell behind early on which was a total bummer.  That in itself seems to have been quite a drain trying to play catch up.  Nothing ever seems to run quite as smoothly as you plan.  But, we haven’t had a shortage of orders and as I write, our show in Toronto has started with a bang so that’s all good.

I was just looking at my bank schedule for December and have come to the realisation that ‘casual part-time’ is not an apt job description!  It’ll be a fun month there and still busy with tin things here so although I like to dream of a December where it will be us sitting around hanging stockings with care and  sipping on rum-laced eggnog while William tinkles the ivories and we sing Christmas ditties, it just isn’t going to happen this year…again!  The idea of sitting about relaxing just seems so foreign; I don’t know what I would do if I wasn’t rushing around from thing to thing…..well, other than write about it that is

I have discovered some interesting stuff out there all of which I intend to listen to further…um…when time permits.  BUT, I did manage to crank up my Yahoo Music Jukebox and try out some James Hunter.  Well!  I’ve often thought that my mother played waaaay too much Motown/Soul as a youngster because I have an odd affinity for it.  It’s not something I bring up in conversation much - it’s almost like a dirty secret.  Mind you, it could be worse…I could have a real thing for <gulp> young country.  EEEEK.

At any rate, I tripped on through Mr. Motown himself, tried out some Fleet Foxes, Love As Laughter and The Presets and even dabble with Lykke Li.  The music is all over the place and I just love it.  I am a music nut and only wish I had more time to test drive other bands.  There’s so much cool stuff out there.  I could waste bags of time given half a chance.   The Yahoo Music Jukebox works well for the most part although it doesn’t always have the ability to access all the music I want to listen to.  I can keep what I want though so am busy stuffing it with all sorts of goodies.  I also finally discovered Travis this week (they’ve only been around for a millenium or so, but I’ve finally caught up to the little darlings) and fell madly in love.  It’s such lovely stuff!

Right now I’m just using old faithful Rolling Stone for my tips and reviews and can’t imagine trying to follow anything else at the moment.  I get stressed just trying to keep up with what I’ve got for goodness sakes!  Aside from the news sent to Google Reader I must have several back issues all gathering dust in the reading basket.  I’m sure that there’s a new pile of cool artists just waiting to launch themselves at me - it’s pretty exciting.

I have to say that my Mum was definitely the music listener in the family.  My earliest memory is of being surrounded by laundry hanging in the living room as she sang away to - yes - Motown.  I don’t remember who exactly, but she has since told me that it was likely The Supremes or some such thing.  She liked all sorts of things from classical, to aforementioned Motown, rock, pop and dance.  Pretty eclectic taste although we did part company when it came to heavier sounding music - she didn’t quite take to my veering off into loud, strange and slightly gritty areas.  She was quite the concert goer too, even dragging my brother and I off to see The Shadows and Cliff Richard when we were youngsters.  Her enthusiasm for the live show was even greater than her love of listening to music on the stereo…which was quite something once she found her groove ;)  I know where I get the desire to have something playing all the time and to try out all sorts of neat stuff.  I also know where I get the excitement from when the opportunity to see a live act presents itself.

Sam and William are dutifully sitting through James Hunter warbling away; quite frankly they don’t have much of a choice!  Neither have asked to have it turned down or switched off which is a good sign.  It will be interesting to see whether they adopt a similar love of all types of music or get completely turned off.  I hope it’s the former.   When a great song hits you, you feel it all over - and there’s nothing better.  Well, other than maybe a chocolate bar, but that’s another story……

To be honest, I do enjoy some time without the children - all of them.  I don’t feel too guilty in saying it.  Well…….maybe just a bit.  It does afford you some time to get things accomplished without someone clinging to your leg, or demanding to be fed, or sighing and carrying on about the latest atrocity being served by a sibling though.  Or, if you’re feeling less ambitious, just time to hang about with your partner or going for a quick drive or errand running, without having to pack half the house with you.

Greg and I lead busy lives, so when the opportunity arose that would see Sam and William off to their uncle’s and the twins hanging out with their Grandparents for a period of time, we took the chance to do some really thrilling things.  Yes, we watched not just one, but two films, all the way through and they got interrupted by us for a change!  Absolute heaven!  We ate a late meal, went tootling off to Ottawa without having to get back for any particular schedule-driven thing and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  I didn’t get much accomplished around the house, but then, I would rather have spent some quality time with the other half than weeding anyway

I love these little spells without the boys.  It doesn’t mean that I don’t love them or that I don’t enjoy their company.  Far from it.  I do think though, that it is necessary to do some things without them - and to get reacquainted with that person that sits across from you at the table who can’t get a word in edgewise for all the racket being made at meal times.  You can get totally lost in the everyday occurrences and before you know it, weeks have slipped by and that person opposite you is looking more and more like a lodger and not your partner at all :)  The time doesn’t have to be long to spend without the littl’uns but  when it’s there, we unabashedly have a fab time.  At the same time, the boys are all enjoying their time away from chores and whatnot, and are doing something different.  By the time everyone reconnects we’re all just a little more refreshed and thrilled to see each other.

I picked up the twins this afternoon, met Greg on the way home as he was heading off to Haliburton for the week, and am now anticipating the arrival of the bigger boys.  I actually feel more tired than I did before they all left - that’s what watching 2 movies in a row will do to you! - but at the same time, rejuvinated and looking forward to some cuddles and stories.

I love my time with and without them - a fine balance I guess!

Last night, instead of watching my Police “Everyone Stares” flick (which incidentally, I’ve only had around for almost a year now and it’s still in the shrink wrap) I rooted around looking for a new blog theme.  By the time I’d picked out 4, I realised that 3 of them were by the same designer, and all 4 essentially had the same ‘look’.  I’m not sure how long I’ll stick this one out, but for now I think it’s kinda funky and neat…I won’t say like me, because it’s just not true

My dear other half, patiently sat with me for an hour after lunch today, explaining RSS feeds and the benefits of using Google Reader.  I also was shown how to replace some odd characters that had appeared in my posts after a recent move was made.  He’s very clever my other half.  Whether or not I remember anything he’s told me is another matter.  He is very cute when he’s exasperated….

At any rate, hopefully this will perk me up and I’ll feel more inclined to post some tidbits here and there and not just when another pet dies!

Until then,

A.

It was the summer when we acquired her and she and Daisy spent that summer romping like a couple of frisky kids. Frequently you could look out of any window and see a tumble of legs and black fur - for they were both black - rolling around having the times of their lives. Every morning, they would leap out of the front door and do a perimeter check of the property, taking the same route every day checking in on things. I don’t remember too many clashes; they seemed pretty happy in each other’s company. While it meant for a lot of big dog bodies to try to move around in our little house, we made it work. Dog hair seemed to be everywhere and I was convinced that 2 year-old Sam would cough up a fur ball at some point.

Time wore on and the girls blended seamlessly into the family routine. We had decided to put an electric fence around the property in order to dissuade the dogs from roaming and getting too close to the road. Unfortunately, during the winter of 98/99 a lot of snow fell, causing the underground wire to lose it’s ability to function effectively. Daisy, figuring this out quite quickly, became a little bolder each day and edged nearer and nearer to the road - Rose decided to hang back being a little happier to stick close to the house. Daisy didn’t stand much of a chance when the snowmobile hit her that wintry day. Hearing the machine coming, she poked her nose around the snow pile at the end of the driveway (the snow pile having obscured the snowmobile’s view of the dog) and ended up straight in it’s path. She landed 200 feet away on the opposite side of the road and died shortly thereafter. Rose was devastated. In one brief moment she went from being the happiest dog in the world, to one in mourning. Our friend Gary popped by shortly after Daisy’s demise and the first thing he said was “poor old Rose, she’s depressed”. He was right. I don’t think she ever completely got over it. She didn’t romp, she stopped her morning perimeter check, she rarely wanted to be outside and was generally subdued. We didn’t need to fix the electric fence. Rose never went near the road unless accompanying us on a walk, and other than the odd trot into the back field, rarely strayed unaccompanied.

This may have shaped the dog that we ended up with. She took on her role as house dog quite seriously. Having no desire to leave the property she made sure that the small area that she did reside in (the main room in the house) and the meagre area she patrolled, were most definitely hers. She hung out with us in the main room as another family member and looked most offended if she were banished to the entranceway when visitors were here - her body was so big that she couldn’t always be a part of the action! She sat out front of the house and barked at anything out of the ordinary, and greeted the UPS and Purolator drivers with great affection. She saved her deepest love and friendship for Gary - she totally adored him, and he her.

As the years wore on, age started to take it’s toll on her. Last summer, while taking the babies for a walk down the road, Rose almost collapsed. Granted it was a hot day, but she seemed unsteady and short of breath. Tests didn’t find much other than that she didn’t have any major illness. Dr. Gray found her to have an irregular heartbeat and told us to keep her quiet. We found this quite amusing since Rose was happiest when doing anything but moving - any more quiet, we chuckled, and she’d be dead! Still, much to her chagrin, when walk time came, we had to leave her behind and she was crushed. True she loved to be at home, but she really loved to be where we were, and if that meant following us down the road then that’s where she wanted to be. Summer turned into fall, and with it came an infected toe that couldn’t be cured by antibiotics. The toe had to come off and we panicked that her heart wouldn’t cope with the stress of it. She came through with flying colours and was like a new dog. Just before Christmas, we had the opportunity to bring into the home, a new addition. While we hadn’t planned to look for a new dog until the spring, Cassie just seemed too perfect to let go. Rose was unconvinced that this was a good idea. She was less than enthusiastic about our new acquisition and didn’t make any time to be overly friendly. While not aggressive, she certainly gave the impression that she could care less whether Cassie was there or not. Cassie, being a young puppy tried to endear herself to Rose, but toleration was about as much as Rose could muster. I don’t know whether it was Cassie’s arrival, or the fact that the twins could now get around but sometime around February, Rose looked like she was just too weary to put up with so much activity and noise. She took to sleeping under the table in the hopes that she would not be found by probing little hands or a bouncy pup. Her left hip started to give her some trouble and I think it must have been painful as she began to growl at the twins if they touched her and was short tempered with Cassie. We, however, still had the great love we’d been accustomed too despite now surrounding her with so much to dislike

On a recent Friday this May, after watching her hobble around uncomfortably for a week or so, Greg took her to Dr. Gray’s for what would be her last visit. She loved going to visit the vet’s office. Goodness only knows why since it always involved some element of discomfort. She had her favourite people though, and I secretly think that she was thankful to them for looking after her until they nudged her into our lives. Dr. Gray reckoned that she had arthritis and perhaps hip dysplasia setting in and decided that giving her a shot of steroids into her hip, would give her a little more comfort. I don’t know whether it was the excitement of getting out, the activity, the shot itself or a combination of those things, but on the way home, Greg noticed that she didn’t seem right. When she got home, I could see that she was decidedly out of sorts especially when she opted to sleep on the other dog bed instead of her usual spot under the table. As the evening wore on, she began to pant heavily and, after looking up about side effects of steroid use in dogs, realised that this was to be expected in the short term. Some time after this started though, she began to get restless. She moved over to her other favourite spot - in front of the couch - and fidgeted the whole time she was there. We didn’t pay too much attention to it, figuring that by morning she’d be feeling more like herself. I could kick myself now. I headed off to bed but wished I had stayed with her. About 45 minutes later Greg woke me up to say she was dying. I was stunned. I came running downstairs to find her going through the last throes of death. Her heart was still beating, her breathing was slow and her eyes were distant. I hope she heard me when I held her and told her how much I loved her. I really do. Five minutes after I arrived, she was definitely gone - in body leastways.

We buried her with the help of her other love, Gary. He wrote a touching poem to her that we’ll treasure for always. It was a tough day.

Now we’re on the search for a yellow rose bush to plant over her burial spot. She’s resting pretty close to where she would sit on pleasant evenings, watching the world go by. It’s also on the route that she would travel when chasing the infamous squirrels that she protected us from. Chipmunks were ok, but squirrels were definitely evil!

I have wonderful memories of our great beast. Her love for all of us, her gentleness despite her grand size, her love of pig ears that she could only enjoy if she consumed them outside, the dance we did anytime the vacuum appeared, her pathetic bark that signaled that she’d had enough of outside and wanted in, her ability to keep track of who was who during our busy season, her affinity (and later, discomfort) for ingesting goose poop, her stinky breath, her wonderful ability at making you feel like shit when she had to be left outside if we were out for the day - she could out-perform Eeyore any day, her long loping strides when we went for a walk in the field, her constant year-round shedding, her look out post on the corner of the house when it was late and the wood stove needed filling, the way she figured that the rug was just a giant dog bed for her, her genuine excitement when she heard Gary’s voice (and to a lesser extent because he didn’t see her as much, Julian’s), and the wonderful reception we would get when we came home after being away - she bounding from around the corner of the house, tail alternately wagging and turning in circles, mouth open, eyes bright and with such a look of love and devotion and happiness you couldn’t help but smile. We shall all miss her fiercely.

Goodbye Rose. We’re so glad we had you to love.

Greg is doing his farmer-bit; something he ocillates between wanting to do more of and running as far away from as his little stumps will carry him. I think he looks rather, aherm, manly in this role. I wish he could drive a combine. That is the pinnacle of studliness as far as I’m concerned. I’ve been in one - it’s not as easy as they make it look. If he could master that, then he need do no more.

Well, and for the twins, just the mere sight of the dinky tractor was enough to get them drooling…one out of excitement, the other out of fear. James is definitely more apt to want to travel along the path with the sign ‘Curious? Come hither!’. It’s just as well that David is quite content to sit and watch as having both of them roaring around could be detrimental to my health. James could have spent all day bouncing about such was his enthusiasm for the whole experience. David on the other hand, was far more content to play on the grass, as far away as possible from the offending beast, clutching his more manageable toy tractor model; or alternately squeezing the living shit out of my arm as he watched James roar by.

Does it mean anything? Probably not. The pair of them flip-flop back and forth with nearly everything, so that from one week to the next you’re not sure who’s really doing what anymore.

I can’t wait for the fall when the crops come off. If Greg figures it out, there’ll be three of us lined up for a turn around the field in the combine. I’ll be the one drooling and hysterical.

And so, until Greg returned the night before the day of the funeral, we each thought of our favourite stories on our own; each remembering something special, funny or touching about our times with Pat. Greg delivered a sort of eulogy today - sort of in that he wasn’t allowed to deliver it at the church and ended up shouting it out at the site of the reception instead. In it, he mentioned some of his memories of Pat and included some of mine too. It was a touching speech and there were lots of heads nodding as Greg told his tales of Pat and his ways. A lot of people he worked with at Upper Canada Village all got up to speak too, and if you hadn’t known Pat before, the picture painted by all of these people would surely have brought to mind the image of man well regarded for many different reasons.

When I first met Greg, I would sometimes visit the Village while he worked there and would take time to visit with the people that we were friendly with. A trip there would always mean stopping in to see Pat. He had a fantastic singing voice, and his deliverance of life as a Lutheran pastor during the 1860’s was terrific. Although he could sometimes come across as a bumbling, eccentric fellow, beneath the surface lurked an amazing source of intellect, knowledge and a love of learning. He would always indulge my questions - no matter how many times he’d probably answered them - as if it were the first time he’d ever heard it. He had a great love of the history of the time and it was extremely hard on him when the focus at the Village altered. It was almost as if he felt a personal attack had taken place. Many a time he would show up after he left the Village almost bordering on tears at what was going on. He was extremely passionate about the maintenance and preservation of historical accuracy.

I have several memories of Pat that make me smile. I once drove the car into the field one winter, at the end of our road. Sam was little and we trudged all the way back to the house on a brisk December night; me fretting about how on earth I was going to get it out. Greg was at a craft show and so I obviously couldn’t ask him. “Aha!” I thought. “Pat!” Pat being Pat, came to my rescue but was apologetic about not getting the car out sooner - this after showing up about 1/2 an hour after I had called him! He promised not to tell Greg that I had done it and puttered off back to milk his cows.

Greg and I went to a wake for a friend’s mother and Pat drove. Pat driving was quite an experience at the best of times. He chattered all the way there and at some point, someone committed a great driving offense which caused a bit of a stir in the cab. The chattering ceased. Pat was pensive for a while before suddenly launching into a great idea he had for putting an end to bad drivers. The idea was to attach a rocket launcher on to the front of his vehicle thus eliminating anyone that dare commit a highway traffic blunder. Greg and I laughed and Pat did eventually, but not after I suspect he imagined the possibility.

Pat had us over for dinner - or should I say, a ‘feast’. He had gone to the local butcher and acquired chicken cordon bleu for the occasion. We were quite taken aback with the meal - it was sumptuous and quite unexpected considering that we knew Pat didn’t cook very much. We had a great wine to compliment, and if I remember correctly, we had the dinner late which was apparently a civilized way of eating way back when. After we had complimented Pat several times on the presentation and how wonderful the dinner tasted, he eventually confessed that he’d had a bit of assistance. Sheila, his sister, had come over and helped him prepare and cook the meal, escaping shortly before we arrived. It didn’t take anything away from the meal at all. In fact, I think it tasted even better because of it. Pat knew what he wanted to do and had taken great pains to make it work. It was totally sweet of him to have made that much of an effort.

There are many more stories out there: Pat and Greg driving around looking for gas during the ice storm, Pat’s moving of a log building onto his property causing traffic blockages as he excitedly awaited it’s arrival, his help when our dog Daisy was hit on the road, our dinner at Le Jardin, his 40th birthday, his absolute thrill that I sent him a card every birthday and his telephone calls that came when he realised that some time had gone by since we had last seen each other.

I had just seen Pat at the bank a week before his death. He had come in to attend to some business and was surprised to see me there. He thanked me profusely for sending him a birthday card (as his birthday had occurred the week before) and indicated that I shouldn’t send him such beautiful ones. We chatted for a bit before he left and I said to him “you should drop by for some tea - we’d love to see you!” This is something that I said every time I saw Pat or that he had said to us, but for whatever reason, we never seemed to get it organised. He only lived around the corner for goodness sakes - it really shouldn’t have been that difficult. He always apologised for not dropping by more often but knew that we were busy. Everyone is busy. It’s not a good reason to not connect with people. He was busy too and it just seemed that those days that we used to see each other more often were from a lifetime ago. I think Greg and I figured that there would be plenty of days ahead of us to sit around with Pat drinking some fine tea out of the beautiful teacups he had bought us for a wedding gift. I could kick myself now. He was such a story teller; full of wonder at the world around him and possessing a great sense of humour. Tea time with Pat was more than just the ceremony of tea drinking. It was a shared trip to wherever he had just been, a conversation he had just had, the views he held on whatever was current and somewhere in there, his love of the land around him. I shall miss his enthusiasm for life, his boundless energy and curiosity and his breadth of knowledge. He was a local treasure and I’ll miss him.