Preparations for the winter include a two-day trip to Vancouver. Visits with my Mom, sister and a couple of friends are fit between errands, dentist appointments, doctor appointments and blood work. We have to go to St. Paul’s every three months for E’s medications as they are distributed directly from the hospital pharmacy.

Normally E would have been seen at the transplant clinic. This year he is having six month blood work done and has begun an annual checkup schedule.  He is feeling great these days and the new life style obviously agrees with him as he weighs less now than when he graduated from high school. Down about twenty pounds since we moved to the island. He doesn’t need to go to a gym for his exercise. We suspect our life style is an incidental exercise routine. Carrying jugs of diesel up and down boat ramps, jumping on and off boats, chopping wood and carrying 165 pounds of propane down the grouse grind (the path down to our house) is a lot more exercise than we had sitting in the White Rock townhouse watching TV and missing our garden.

Apparently I need to do more carrying, jumping and chopping because I haven’t lost any weight. I have added carrying, jumping and chopping to my list of things to think about doing this winter.

The dogs stay with my Mom and sister when we go to town. My sister has two cats, my mom has a dog… It is quite the handful and we appreciate them hosting the pups. Sammi is just a little neurotic and my sister reports that he sits staring at the door while we are gone. Willing me to come back… He is asleep on my shoulder right now and won’t let me out of his site for a day or two.

We lived twenty-two years in the same house in L around the corner from my Mom. We were able to visit with our ex next door neighbours for a glass of wine on Tuesday night. It was great to see them but I was devastated to see that the new owners of our house are destroying my life’s work. (Do I sound too dramatic?) They are taking apart our gorgeous garden. Our kids grew up with hours of shovelling dirt and gravel with me to create rooms of flowers joined by winding paths.

Years of grad luncheons, family reunions and garden parties were spent in a completely private peaceful space.  The new owners are dismantling the whole garden. They have cut down the large trees and removed the privacy hedges.  The neighbouring townhouses can look down into the garden again. Idiots… ugh!! Makes me so angry.

I have to get back to the island and remember that L isn’t our home anymore and we have moved onto a new life and a new garden…..

One sea lion swimming past me will put it all in perspective again… I really shouldn’t go back to that street. It just upsets me…..

I am sitting on the ferry now. We still have to go to the Post Office, gas station, and grocery store in Nanaimo. The search is on for non-homogenized whole milk as my sister-in-law is coming to the island this weekend and is going to teach a group of us how to make cheese. Just need to make a hemp skirt and my conversion to a gulf islander will be complete. We should be back on the island and unpacked by 7 pm… ugh!!!!

This morning was a mad rush to see my Doctor and our Dentist. They both have the same name. I think it is important to only see medical professionals with the name of Ron Davidson. It is a consistent medical care plan. We are considering taking this practice (pun intended) to our other professional services, lawyers, bankers, accountants. “Do you have a Ron Davidson on staff?” No? Well then we will have to take

our business elsewhere.