Even though we lived way up in Maine, which isn’t all that far from Canada, I have to be honest and say that I never had the chance or opportunity to take such a trip up there. Now that we are living way south I don’t know if I’ll ever get up there or not. I have several friends and acquaintances that are scattered here and there that I’d love to be able and visit. Most likely I would never have to spend a dime on any hotel or motel rooms, nor pay for too much food along the way.

I’ve decided to do some research myself on the Internet so I Googled “Rent Calgary” and I have to admit that it sounds like a wonderful place, but I have realized that I know nothing about Canada. I don’t even know if they speak English or French in that particular area. That shouldn’t be a problem with her though since she was one of the rare ones that took French in school while the majority of us took Spanish which we could never figure out why. Maybe she knew something back then that she might one day end up living some where that she could use it, although I’m sure she has forgotten a lot of it by now.

Where ever she ends up I hope that she will be happy and feel good about where she lands. Looks like I’ll have to be saving my money to go and see her instead of saving up for a new TV or a car or a beach get-a-way or any thing like that.

I try not to call her too much, so I have been communicating with her mainly through emails and texting. It has been so long since we have talked on the phone or seen each other face to face that I all most forget what her voice sounds like for heaven’s sake! So I am so happy to accept an invite from her to join her to watch the fireworks tomorrow night in celebrating the 4th of July. This is something that we have done dozens of times through out the years of our friendship and from many, many vantage points all over the country, depending where we are living at the time. And I’m so grateful that we are both at least in the same state for right now anyway, but after she graduates, who knows where she will end up, it all depends where the best money is to help pay for all the education that was required for her to get into her new field of bettering the environment. Her favorite color has always been green!

Anyway, Ms Joan decided last night to attempt to walk down the stairs to her basement by herself (which has been a big no no for the past year since she experienced a stroke) and ended up taking a tumble down the last 5 steps, landing on the cold concrete floor. It is a good thing that our houses are so close together and that the boys were outside playing in the driveway so that they heard her hollering and came running inside and got me and told me what was going on. Before I went running out the door to help her I called 911 and got an ambulance on it’s way to get her medical attention as soon as possible even before I really knew that she needed a doctor.

I rode along with her to the hospital and stayed with her for the 8 1/2 hour ordeal. Going to the E.R. by yourself just isn’t cool in my book. I even have an E.R. Bag that I keep handy for these types of trips, which I grabbed before climbing in the ambulance. It is always cold in every E.R. that I’ve ever been in, so I have a light blanket packed along with a book,a water bottle, some chewing gum and Tic Tacs, a Word Search or Cross Word Puzzle book, a pair of socks, our extra cell phone charger, a roll of quarters for the vending machines along with a few snacks to help keep the growlies at bay. 

It was a busy night at the E.R. all the doctors and nurses running around in their 100 cotton scrubs, most likely ordered from http://www.blueskyscrubs.com/categories/Scrubs/Scrubs-for-Women/Original-Scrubs/ all the while trying to keep cool while tending to the dozens of patients that were streaming in and out of the place, demanding of their time and medical talents. They had several box fans located throughout the place that they kept picking up and moving in order to get some type of relief from the horrible heat from this heatwave that we have been experiencing these past few weeks, bless their hearts. As if their jobs weren’t difficult enough all ready.

Anyways, Ms Joan came out of the ordeal with just a few bumps and bruises, she could have easily broken her hip or her neck for heaven’s sake. But they checked her out from head to toe, did all types of tests, poked and prodded her until she was ready to jump out of that bed and get the heck out of there and get back home.

Today we heard about a lot of bad tornadoes that swept through Alabama yesterday and did a lot of damage. I heard that some areas of Huntsville were affected, so I tried to call and could not get an answer. I hope they are OK and that its just a problem with the cell towers. I’m going to post something on their Facebook wall and let them know I am trying to reach them.

Every year, our whole family gets together to go Christmas tree shopping at a tree farm that is located about 30 miles outside of town. It’s one of my favorite family traditions and is a great time for everyone to get outside in nature and spend time together.

We went this last weekend to pick out our tree because we wanted to have it ready for Thanksgiving. It’s already pretty cold here, so we bundled up the kids pretty well before heading out. We packed a few games for them to play in the car, set the Security Choice home security alarm, and then made our way to the tree farm.

Once we arrived, the owners greeted us with some warm apple cider. It was the perfect treat for such a chilly day! They gave us instructions on how we could select the tree and which ones we had to choose from before sending us on our way. They also gave us a few tips on choosing a good tree that would hold the style of ornaments we wanted to put up.

After about an hour of searching, we finally found the perfect tree! It was just the right shape and size. We decided it was the one and then got it strapped up to the car, so that we could go home and decorate right away.

After a wonderful Thanksgiving with our terrific family, my husband and I caught a plane back to Virginia . The weekends always go by so fast. For months you sit around and anticipate one weekend of the year, and when the time actually arrives, it always seems to go by quickly. However, it’s all about the memories you make in that given time period, and we made some amazing ones this year. Our family lives all over the country, but thankfully, we were able to convene at my daughter’s home in Charlottesville. It was hard to coordinate everyone’s schedules, but it all fell into place for Thanksgiving. I’m honestly impressed at how organized we were for this meeting, and we planned a terrific feast, and a number of fun family activities. Everything went great.

Now that we are back in Virginia, we are really missing our family and getting back to our daily routines and regular activities. My husband just bought a new pair of Hearing Aids by Miracle Ear, and I spent some time getting the house back in order. We’ve already decided that we can’t wait until Christmas time comes so that we will all be together for another fun time.

This year is a very special year indeed. As of November 8th, my wife and I have been married for 30 years. Looking back our lives together, it’s been quite an adventure. From our early days in the big city to raising our son and daughter in California, to moving to South Carolina to retire, we’ve experience a lot. In our days, we’ve shared too many adventures to enumerate, and we couldn’t be happier to have reached the point in our relationship that we are at.

For this particular anniversary, I had something really special planned. For the past few years, I have put money away, and on my anniversary I surprised my wife with a trip to Hawaii. She couldn’t believe what I was saying and even went to readjust her new Digital Hearing Aids before I had to reaffirm. We are going to stay a whole week. That is one of the beautiful things about retirement, if we want a big trip, we can take it and that’s it! I know this trip is going to be another series of moments in our lives together that we will look back on fondly.

Now that it’s November, I know it won’t be long until we start getting hit hard with snow up here in Maine. This state has a lot of natural beauty, but the winters are always a challenge. When the snow hits, it hits hard. We get feet of the stuff, and my husband always dreads having to take out the snow plow shovel out the drive way. At his age, it really starts to take a toll on his back.

I remember when our two sons were just boys. They would love the chance to play in the snow and hope for school cancellations. However, around here it pretty much takes a full on blizzard to cancel school for the young ones. Last night while trying to find new miracle ear hearing aids on the internet, I decided to look into RV prices. Now that the kids are living on their own and we’re retired, I think we might finally get a chance to be snowbirds this year. I think we are finally going to go visit our relatives down south and finally get to see what we’ve been missing out on all these years.