May 26-27 -- back to reality

Real or Surreal ? -- there is a school of thought that everything actually takes place in our minds and that there is no actual reality -- shades of The Matrix, I suppose -- in any event, my reality is a busy but more predictable life than the last month.

I forgot to mention in the previous blog entry that we spent a little more time "at sea" than Ched had planned, since we detoured to Jeffry's Reef (sp?) on the way to our lunch spot because Ched input the wrong buoy into the GPS. Since there was a lot of haze, you could not see land and realize that we were off track. It was only a 15 mile diversion and we enjoyed the ride -- that's what we came for anyway -- the only unfortuate part is that we did not see any whales -- which is what you normally see at the Reef. I got an email from Ched saying that they took a ride out to the Reef a couple of days later, hung around for a bit and watched a whale feed for an hour. Darn -- that would have been great -- we'll have to go back !!

On Saturday we left early (5 a.m.) to drive to Hemingford. We got in a little before 10am, which was probably earlier than necessary but it gave me some time to decompress before going to the memorial service.

The drive was very pretty -- mountains of New Hampshire and Vermont -- and we passed close by Keene, the penultimate stop on the bike ride. It's a lot quicker at 65 mph. The tail end of the drive was up I89, off at Swanton, and then our familiar route back from Jay Peak to Hemingford. At the border they were naturally curious about the Florida plates coming through a back border location, but no hassle.

Abby was her usual self, jumping all over and wriggling, but she does that even if we're away a day.

Wayne and Mary arrived a little after 11am. We left at 12:15 for Mooers, leaving extra time in case there were delays at the border (it's only a 10 mile drive in total). There were 5 or 6 cars queued up but the crossing was quick.

There was quite a crowd in attendance for the service, almost all of the cousins and some of the children. Billy and his gang were there -- it's the first that anyone has seen them in a long time due. They came to the graveside as well but did not attend the luncheon back at the church. Diane was there but not Daryl -- he is undergoing cancer treatment for leukemia -- and Glen but not Elinor -- she was attending a 40th reunion in Montreal.

With the late luncheon and me attending 7:15 Mass in Hemingford, we had dinner at Sheryl's around 8pm. By 9:30 I was asleep -- I have no idea what time others headed off but most of us had had a long day so I suspect that they were not far behind.

The next morning I was up early as usual, but Abby was not there to greet me. She slept in Sheryl's room (on the floor) which is what she has done at Sheryl's without us, since otherwise she'll bark at any outside noise.

We were not in a hurry to leave so we got underway around 8am. I was able to pack two layers of suitcases in the back of the X5 and the bike on top -- a good test since that is what I'll probably do when we go to Florida in the summer. Abby had the back seat to herself, not having to share with luggage. We followed the GPS guidance for the most part, but not out of Quebec. It wanted to take us west through the U.S. and back across at Cornwall -- but when it finally changed its mind and followed our track it made only 2 or 3 minutes difference. We also followed it through Valleyfield, rather than the normal bypass -- with all the stop lights and stop signs I'm not sure that saved any time. From 17 toward North Bay it took us down 94 to Corbeil and then on 634 towards Loring, rather than 522 -- it's an interesting route. We'll have to make a trip to North Bay sometime using both routes and see if there is any time/distance difference.

We arrived up north around 3:30 pm -- everything was in order. The outside temperature was around 70, the inside around 65. We started a fire to take the minor chill off and reduce the humidity.

Sandy helped me get the dock in place. In the cove it was fully on the ground along the entire one side, but a long pipe working as a lever got that out fairly easily. Getting it over the rock at the front end of the dock was another matter. The water is low and the dock is heavy. We first tried levering it over the rock but the best we could do was getting the edge on the rock. There was no moving it from that point. I ended up using the big jack -- with that you can lift and then let it fall in the direction that you are aiming. By 5:30 we had it in place and I was ready for a glass of wine -- the first decent glass of wine that I've had in a long time.

We barbecued some frozen lake trout for dinner, rice and peas -- a simple home cooked meal, the first we've had since Arlene's. What can I say ? -- it's how I like to eat. I doubt if I'll darken a Denny's for a long time ... but if I run across a DQ in Sudbury, that will be another matter ! Interestingly enough, the services signs along the highway in Canada actually list it as DQ -- perhaps that is already bilingual ?

I had begun to go through the mountain of mail before dinner but tired of that and did not finish until the next morning, paying a number of bills with Quicken and some by paper -- local tax bills and the bill for snowplowing over the past winter. We did not get much snow -- he only came 7 times -- so the bill was only $175. It took a long time to reach me since he sent it to "George Thompson" in New Smyrna Beach, on "Saxton" Drive (neither of those would have created any delays) and then Trish sent it up in a package of mail. There is more mail with Bonnie from the last two weeks that we will pick up on Monday.

Of course I was not here anyway, but apparently that large package of mail took two tries to get here -- the first one came apart and the mail was all resent individually to NSB -- Trish then got a refund for the $25 that it cost to mail and repackaged and resent. I guess that USPS lost out on that postage ...

Naturally I was in bed by 9:30 ... why should I change my habits.