Christmas Torture

Winter weather is here, which means that Zelda is starting to molt and turn into a snowman.


It also means that Oliver can put his obedience training to use and stoke the fire like we taught him to. Put another log in the stove for mama! Good boy!!


Mark and I went on our annual "Let's Fight All Day and Buy Christmas Present in the City" field trip. Has anyone else ever tried to go shopping with Mark? Other than grocery shopping I mean. If it's for groceries, he's all over that. Shopping for presents though? A new pair of shoes? Or, perish the thought, new pants because SOMEBODY doesn't have a SINGLE pair of jeans that still contain an intact hem because he fidgets and picks them apart all day? No way. It's the only time he gets tense and uptight.

He stands stiffly inside the store, his jaw clenches, and he asks repeatedly if we're done yet, even though he knows the answer. It's the closest that we come to fighting every year. Over time, we've developed a strategy that works for both of us (more or less). We have to make a gigantic, detailed list of what we need to get for everybody on our Christmas list. I tell Mark which day we are going to go into "The City" to go shopping, and then he books a band practice on that day. I make him cancel it. I book the dogs into the kennel for the day. As the date approaches he makes plans to go hiking with a friend on the agreed-upon shopping day. I make him cancel it. He apologizes by claiming to have forgotten we were going shopping.

The fateful day arrives and we start out on the two-hour drive, stopping halfway to refuel on Just Us Coffee. Then the shopping begins, and we pick at each other for being too impatient (Mark) /slow (Julie), or too unrealistic (Mark) / unfocused (Julie). He tells me to hurry; I tell him to help me pick a gift then. He walks morosely behind me and I pretend not to notice that he's DYING because we're SHOPPING WAY TOO MUCH.

Magically, we end up tired and broken at the end of the day in Chapters. It's the same every year. The sun will have set and my feet ache. Our stamina is gone and we wander giddily around the store searching against all hope for the last elusive perfect present for our cherished friends and family.

Winter is here and the sun's strength has left us. It's less than a month until Christmas and we've made it back from The City relatively unscathed, and now we can look forward to chocolates, tinsel, family, friends, and warm celebration on cold, dark nights.

Rainy Days

It's been raining - no, POURING for five days now. Our beautiful little Valley is so waterlogged that it's scary. Roads, even highways, are inaccessible and some of the outlying communities have been evacuated. I was driving by the river with Chani and we saw pumpkins - dozens of them - floating downstream in a big herd. It was surreal. Some farmer further upstream probably lost his whole crop, and I'm sure he's not the only one. The Annapolis River has jumped its banks in many locations, and who knows how bad this will get with the continuing rain in the forecast.

Stop it, Nova Scotia! I should have escaped this when I moved away from Vancouver Island!


Anyway.

So I'm taking a little road trip with my mom this week. She has to take care of some family stuff and wanted me to help her. It's so strange to be asked to help my mother. My mom is a strong person and has always been so reliable it's ridiculous. Have you ever been involved in an emergency, or a situation where stress is high and the right decision has to be made? My mom is seriously the person to have with you when that sort of stuff goes down.

So now I am the one to help the person who is usually helping others. I'm not a "people person" AT ALL, but when it comes to family I'm there. That's a big reason Mark and I moved back here from Vancouver Island (besides the fact that houses cost like a million dollars out there and I didn't have a million dollars at the time).

When we lived out there, visiting parents involved much prior planning, at least $2,000, and about eight hours in planes and airports. Now, we can be at Mark's mom's place in an hour and a half, and at my parents in just a little longer than that. When Mark's mom needs wood chopped or has a blueberry pie that needs eating, we can be there. When my parents need us to babysit the dog or take a chocolate-zucchini loaf off their hands, we can do it.

I've always gotten along with my mom and dad well. I was never the rebel child at all (unless you count all those damned tattoos I keep getting). I'm glad to live here now and be able to see my parents every now and again, even if we have many differing opinions. Which we do.

The thing is, you only get one family. Always do whatever you can to make the most of it.

Country Cops

So I'm driving along one of the secondary highways outside of town when I hear police sirens. I look in the rear-view mirror and see the blue-and-red right behind me. Ack!!

Maybe he just got a call about an emergency up ahead. Yeah, that must be it. I pull over to let him pass me, but the damned cop car pulls in right behind me. I wrack my brain... I wasn't speeding... my stickers are up-to-date... what's the matter?

I try my best to remain calm, and roll down my window as the cop opens his door. I look in my mirror to see a familiar, jovial figure with a big grin plastered on his face, carrying something in his hand and waving.

I immediately yell at the cop for scaring me. It's an acquaintance and I know by now that I've been pulled over for a social call.

He approaches my car, still grinning, and says "I thought that was you!"

I laugh as he hands me the object in his hand. It's a little doggy rain jacket for Oliver, our Miniature Pinscher. This RCMP officer is a fellow animal lover and has shown up at my door in the past with little t-shirts and such for Oliver, whom he has taken quite a liking to. We chit-chat for a minute before going our separate ways.

I can only assume that city cops never pull these kinds of stunts.