Tales From Dartmouth Cove: November 2009

"Today you might be feeling a powerful need to write down your thoughts, dear Sagittarius, but they might prove a bit too amorphous for you to put them into words. You might also have difficulty making contact with friends or loved ones; you may keep missing each other! Getting around in your neighborhood could prove frustrating as traffic is likely to be backed up. In spite of small irritations, however, this should be an enjoyable day. Hang in there!"

Interesting, very interesting. I know they are quite subjective but once in a while, it can seem to fit with just what's going on in your life. I have been struggling for months with blogging. I used to write pretty near every day. I'm not sure if Facebook is the culprit, stealing my time from blogging to poke, post and comment my night away. It could be writer's block. I've been in a bit of a fog lately, but then again, losing a Dad can do that. My daughter called this evening, but was in the grocery store, and her cell phone kept cutting out, which annoyed the hell out of both of us so ended the call prematurely. As for traffic. It was the worst I've been in since moving back east this afternoon. I had taken my mother with me to my aunt's funeral. My dad's brother's wife passed away last week. The funeral was over by about 3:30, at which point we headed across the city...prime rush hour...ugh. With huge hospitals and several universities and colleges in town, mid afternoon can be super busy. What otherwise would have taken me about 30 minutes, took me about two hours today. I am so glad I do not drive to work every day. I take public transit, with the ferry being my favorite part of the day, particularly in the warm summer sun of the morning.

And then we moved onto the enjoyable part of the evening. After depositing my exhausted mother at her apartment, I drove back through rush hour traffic to park my car and jump on the bus to the ferry terminal. I JUST missed the ferry, so had to wait 15 minutes, which was a total drag. The pub was nice enough, the food was great - crispy beer battered chicken breast strips with home made potato chips, and a pint of Keith's light...man that was a good. I met my boss's husband and spent most of the time chatting him up. 2 pints later, I'm racing off to catch the ferry home with two of my coworkers, only to find that we have missed it, justs by seconds...AGAIN. Sigh...so then we struck out to check out the buses. It was still early enough that several buses were running and we didn't have to wait long to catch a bus back to the dark side. I transferred to another bus and was home in short order. Phew.

I am rather thrilled with the temperatures. It was 13C when I picked up Mother for the funeral. And now it's still 7C. Very unseasonal for late November on the east coast. It's been raining on and off for days. At least I don't have to shovel rain...and I am still in my sandals and no jacket. Yahfrigginhoo.

The new neighbor has been fumbling around below me for days, clunk, bank, slam, crash. At one point, yell, scream, slam, bang...a couple of nights at least, if not more. The problem is, although I can certainly hear the voices below me (of real people) and the house shakes when they bang and crash around, I can't quite make out what they are saying unless they are yelling all of the words at the same level, which they do not. So I get every 4th or 5th word...often FUCK! or JAYSUS! I met her the day she moved in, and haven't seen her since.

The police went roaring by here a few nights ago. Six cars in less than 10 minutes. Turns out someone was shot in a break and enter just down the street on Pleasant, by the refinery. I think he's doing okay, the paper reported non-life threatening injuries.

One more day of work, and the sweetness of the weekend begins. I have to spend most of the weekend trying to get through some household chores that I've been putting off. Friggin back pain is the worst its ever been. Yuck. I'm sure I'll find time to fit in some enjoyment, supposing it consists of no more than finishing off my Stephen King and get started on the latest Wally Lamb, curled up in my teddy bear chair & a half with Stormy.

I wonder what tomorrow's horoscope will bring.

I brought my father's sewing tin back with me from Grand Bruit last month. I opened it initially, saw that it looked like it always did and haven't looked since. Today I opened it up again and surveyed the contents. Like many sewing tins, kits, boxes, baskets, etc. it contained much more than sewing related items. The inventory was an interesting glimpse of my father's life.

The golden round items at centre are buttons from his RCAF military dress uniforms. Several of his Sgt. stripes pins, along with many other pins, such as IFATSEA - International Federation of Air Traffic Safety Electronics Association and a beautiful crest pin from Goose Bay. The little red heart reads "Place on thy heart one drop of the Precious Blood of Jesus and fear nothing" - Words of P.P. IX (Pope Pius)

The small white item to the right of the Sgt stripes pin at bottom centre is what appears to be a piece of my father's tooth...