John's Celebration of Life

 

Yesterday was very special. We finally held John's Celebration of Life. An early morning scattering of his ashes took place under clear skies. In chronological order we took turns from August, our 12 year old grandson, passing the urn to family members and ending with the 78 year old...me!

Around 10:00am we welcomed family and friends to the Rotary Interpretive building at Derek Doubleday Park. Everyone mingled with beverages and cake in hand. Some had never met, others had not seen each other for years but everyone had known and loved John.

Heather had prepared a beautiful printed piece that memorialized her father.

Adrian wore one of his father's t-shirts while he shared stories and MC'd the celebration.

The t-shirt has John's favorite quotation by Nikos Kazantzakis

"I hope for nothing

I fear nothing

I am free"

Dave Clark, one of John's oldest friends from High School days

provided a few funny stories from their youthful adventures.

Chris, our son-in-law, recounted the experience of having John officiate at their wedding.

There were many other stories from family and friends that included peanut butter, shortbread, broken limbs, fishing trips and long distance friendships over the years. It was a wonderful gathering, spanning generations and full of love. I am grateful to everyone who joined us.

Walks in the HOOD

 

Gorgeous weather means wonderful walks with the air scented from blossoming trees and bushes! My right pupil finally returned to normal size about 48 hours after cataract surgery. It is amazing how much brighter everything around me looks! My paintings are completely different when viewed independently through each eye. Cataract surgery for my left eye will be on June 6th. That is when the eye drop confusion will really be a challenge.

The back side of Brogan's Diner...a Langley City favorite.

Inside you will find Elvis and an inviting stage for performers!

 

Cataracts and toenails

 

Ah!...this aging process is fraught with challenges. Cataract surgery for my RIGHT eye is scheduled for tomorrow. This involves a complex system of administering three different eye drops for a varied number of days...starting two days before surgery! So...I designed a special calendar for the five week period and yesterday morning I dropped the first drop into the LEFT eye! My mistake was easily explained by the placement of the three vials on the lefthand side of my table! So...I moved the vials to the righthand side of the table and, as an extra precaution, made a large sign that reads RIGHT! it seems to be working so far.

An additional complication will happen in two weeks when surgery is scheduled for the other eye. a second calendar will have to sit on the left side of the table with three new vials for the LEFT eye! It is a good thing that I do not entertain because guests would be subjected to my pharmaceutical table of contents!

A visit to the podiatrist yesterday confirmed that the large toenail on my left foot has a fungal infection. He prescribed a solution to paint on the toenail every night for one year! My pharmacist said "This is quite expensive!...$124 for one month of applications". I was stunned! He explained that it would probably last for more than one month because I was only painting one toenail! Can a fungal toenail kill you?

Sad

 

Those we hold in our hearts

never truly leave us.

I will cherish 50 years of shared memories.

Seattle

What a wonderful weekend! My son was at a conference in Seattle last weekend so my niece and I drove down to spend some time with him. It had been almost 5 years since we had visited with each other in Chicago...Covid delayed all plans to visit.

Between Mereille and Mitch they organized every detail of our visit.

UBER was a new method of transportation for me and very efficient!

On Good Friday we wandered down to Pike Street Market

and viewed the tasty displays like GUM ALLEY...

...and fresh produce.

Unfortunately the Art Gallery was closed but this sculpture

outside the entrance was very powerful!

Marika and Adrian joined us on Saturday

and shared the exciting news of their pregnancy!

On Saturday afternoon we enjoyed a fun time

at a downtown Ping Pong game centre.

In the Ping Pong Hall we were surrounded by a gallery

of interesting art that continued into the washrooms.

Downtown Seattle seemed sad due to retail and business closures as well as a large number of homeless people on the streets. When we travelled to other areas it appeared that small businesses were trying to recover from covid. 

The first night we shared dinner at Ron Mai, a small Thai restaurant owned by friends of Mitch in the Capitol Hill region. On our last night we revisited that area for a Mexican dinner at La Cocina Santiago owned by the same family for over 40 years. Both meals were very good! Mitch also took us to Shaker and Spear, a 5 star restaurant in downtown Seattle. The fish and seafood were amazing!!

An ANIMEE conference was taking place over the weekend so the hotel and the streets were full of weirdly costumed attendees. Their conference mandated mask wearing so the combination of costumes and masks created an interesting flow of pedestrians on the street. 

Covid restrictions have been totally relaxed so most people were unmasked. We chose to wear masks in the elevators and in congested public areas. At Spear and Shaker we were asked to produce proof of covid vaccine. I was pleased that mask wearing is mandated in all UBER vehicles...drivers and passengers.

After dinner, in the evenings, we reconvened in the Club Lounge on the top floor of our hotel and shared a nightcap along with stories about covid experiences, family updates and plans for the future. It was a very special weekend! Hopefully we will gather again soon.

Home from Mexico

 

It was a wonderful, relaxing time away from two years of isolation. It was great to be in the company of good friends and to socialize with a small selection of their friends who were triple vaccinated and ready to cautiously return to "normal".

A daily float while listening to the birds.

The house was built around the trees.

Looking back at the house from our evening G&T spot.

Our evening G&T location overlooking Los Arcos.

A day trip to Mayto Beach where the sand extended for kilometers.

I made three trips by bus into downtown Puerto Vallarta. Bus fare is 10 pesos (60 cents) regardless of whether you go for one stop or to the end of the route. You do not need the exact fare because the drivers will make change for you. Everyone is masked including the driver.

Walking around in the city it is obvious that Mexicans take the regulations seriously. They are always masked, unlike the tourists who roam around in various states of undress without masks. During my one evening visit to the downtown area I was appalled at the number of tourists crammed into and spilling out of bars without a mask in sight. My thoughts went to the locals who were working in these bars and risking exposure to the virus in order to make a living. I kept my distance with my mask in place!

The park in Central downtown Puerto Vallarta is being transformed 

with mosaics on all of the surfaces. It is stunning!

The adjustment to my release from isolation was interesting. Initially I was anxious, tightly masked in the airport and on the plane, using sanitizer on my hands and surfaces. Anxiety ramped up in the PV airport where everyone was masked but not observing distances. Eventually, after one week in Mismaloya, I relaxed enough to board a bus into town and to join my friends for a restaurant meal.

Preparing to return to Vancouver it took a while to complete the ArriveCan app and I was glad that I had taken all of my vaccination info. The pre-travel covid test in PV was easy (650 pesos=$40). They gave me a paper copy and emailed it to me as well. Westjet checkin was a disappointment. It took one hour and could have been handled much quicker with re-alignment of the checkin clerks. The line for those with boarding passes had one clerk and apparently most of us had already acquired our passes. As a result there were 150 in line for one clerk and the remainder in line for the other two clerks.

Thank you again to my hosts who treated me so generously!

Mismaloya

After a three year absence, I am visiting Mismaloya again. South of Puerto Vallarta, my home here looks out on Los Arcos. Yesterday was a whale watching morning with several whales playing for about an hour. It is a sunny, warm and relaxing place to recover from the two year stress of Covid.

My days are spent with writing, eating, drawing, eating, napping, eating and listening to the waves and birds. For some reason the blog entries do not appear as neatly when posted from my IPad. If that happens with this post, I apologize. Meanwhile, life is good here in Mismaloya Mexico.