Dec 4 - four weddings and a funeral

We heard from Bonnie yesterday that Jack Robinson was not expected to recover and then late last night that he'd passed away. I guess that it's a blessing that he didn't linger too long in that semi-conscious state, heavily sedated. Their daughters flew out to join them so probably arrived before he passed away but I don't expect that he would have known that they were there.

Delores is now faced with getting their car home, somehow, and selling the cottage. Perhaps she'll stay the winter out in Duncan BC -- about 1.5 hours away from Victoria -- that might be the best thing. They had friends out there ... or perhaps it would be better for her to come back to Toronto with her daughters. There is no way that she can stay at the cottage by herself for any length of time although I suppose that she could come up in the Spring and with some help get it opened and ready for sale. I suspect that she'll get an apartment in Toronto or vicinity with the proceeds or perhaps live with one of her daughters -- although the relationship has not been close, so that might be difficult.

The Robinsons used to be very good friends with my Mom and Dad although in later years that fell off, due to some issue between them. My Dad explained it at one point but it went in one ear and out the other, so to speak. I always maintained that their issues were not mine, not being one for "family feuds". That kept me close to Kay and Jack (Jason's parents) and Jack and Delores, but only after Mom & Dad's passing for the latter.

Well, that takes some of the joy out of watching these videos since Jack and Delores appear quite frequently. Well, but so do Mom and Dad ... and I'm sure that many of the old folk who appear in the videos from Florida, many of whom were older than Mom and Dad, are already gone. Perhaps I'm falling into the old-people's habit of looking at past years as "the good old days" -- when these people were alive, vibrant, happy; when Philip and Sarah were together; kids laughing without the stress of living their own lives, no burdens ...

No ... today will be the good-old-days for future generations. Our kids will see pictures of us now, gung-ho and active, and the world will keep moving on. Today's crises, both economic or family, will be old news. Life goes on.

So ... we watched another video yesterday, from March 93 to September 94. We could call yesterday four weddings and a funeral -- the video had Tracy's, Bobbie's, Arlene's weddings; Uncle Phil's anniversary celebration at Michael's (just a snippet since the balance is on another video), and then the funeral, of course, is Jack's. I thought of the analogy yesterday and was going to say "without a funeral" but circumstances intervened.

I had to take a lot of notes on this video or there was no way that I'd remember all the contents:

-- Tracy's wedding -- this was the bus trip and receiving line part
-- a walk around Vickerman's cottage, almost looked like "taking inventory"
-- Jeffrey on the GT snow racer -- over and over and over again down the hill at the cottage
-- Meaghan and Olivia -- both of these in December at the cottage so this must have been the year that Dad had the kidney stone that needed blasting with ultrasound and they couldn't leave for Florida until late January
-- kids opening gifts with Mom (Jeffrey, Meaghan and Olivia). This is priceless.
-- Philip, Sarah, Meaghan, Olivia, Jeffrey using the 3-wheeler to pull the snow racer on the lake, Philip and Sarah taking turns driving the bike, everyone taking turns on the sled
-- Dec 24th in Port Credit, with Juliet, Mark, Jade & Devon, David, Stef, Brian (Stef's boyfriend)
-- Jeffrey & me building a snowman at the cottage on January 1
-- a brief shot in Florida in February, just to prove that they'd been there
-- back at the cottage with Sarah and the girls, without Philip
-- CA with Arlene & Ernie in their old house, Philip there too
-- Arlene's wedding
-- back at the cottage with Meaghan and Olivia
-- all of us at Philip's in June, including Arlene and Ernie
-- a shot in Niagara Falls
-- Bobbie's wedding in June 94
-- back in Port Credit
-- Jeffrey mowing the lawn at the cottage, complete with bug hat etc.
-- and then maybe 15 seconds at Michaels from the anniversary celebration for Uncle Phil and Aunt Ruth.

For those of you who wonder why I am providing all these details in the blog, it's really for anyone who will be receiving a copy of these videos. This is the only place that I'm recording contents so if they want to look for something or want to know what's in a video, they can refer to these blogs.

What else ... no, I did not go for a ride yesterday. I was hanging around waiting to see Steven Harper come out of Rideau Hall to see if the Governor General was going to suspend Canadian Parliament. She did ... and I didn't. We did go to Home Depot however and pick up a piece of pipe and drippers to replace the drip hose at the front. Its output was quite irregular with a lot of water waste, and I wanted to fix that. It wouldn't take much to do the side either ... and would quickly pay for itself in water usage. The parts are cheap -- $10 for 100 feet of this hose, 99 cents for elbows, connectors etc., and a couple of dollars for a pack of 25 dribblers. If I wanted to do the side yard it would only take three elbows, two ends, and I already have the dribblers and the hose. Hmmm. Perhaps I should.

We had tuna last night. It was excellent. There's enough left over for my lunch sandwich. Zucchini and rice completed the picture. No, I didn't do the rice on the barbie. The white rice that we get from Publix is really crummy. It's supposed to be long grain rice but must be seconds because along with the long grains are many bits ... if you didn't cook it enough you'd think that you were having grits. There's nothing wrong with the taste but the small bits change the texture. There's no fluffiness.

I guess that's it. I'm still a little down from Jack's passing. He lived a good, long life and was relatively healthy and happy to the end, which is what's important. His mind was sharp too. Due to some health issues he had to give up drinking many years ago -- he used to be a very hearty man and a big drinker. He started out as a big man and ended up smaller than me. I hate to think of what I'll look like at 80, should I live so long -- I could be a jockey !!

Arlene, in an email to me, was referring to Jack & Dolores as the last of the "old guard". Actually there are still two more couples that I would consider in that vein -- the Sherar's and the Bain's. Ken turned 80 this year and I'm sure that Ernie is close to that. Jim Matthews is actually second generation as is Stillar. The Vickerman's are still alive but living in southern Ontario. Actually there may be others -- the Parks etc. -- but I don't know them.

Time marches on ... it's time for another cup of soup ! It's going to be warm today and I'll be on the bike. One more week and we will be on our way -- or perhaps another week and a couple of days. I'm starting to lean towards leaving on Monday the 15th but I'll make that decision based on weather predictions late next week. It doesn't take long to get out of here -- if someone told me right now that I had to head north it would probably take about two hours to get ready and leave. Sandy would grumble ... Abby would leap into the car. The only reason that Sandy would grumble is because I'd be rushing her breakfast, and of course we would be leaving the good weather.

We are back to our routine, taking a walk with Abby after dinner. It's not a power walk -- Sandy does that in the afternoon. It's a stroll.

That's it ...