AUGUST 17 - 38 Years and Counting, Gary Park Beach, and a Memory via an Old Letter

38 years ago today, Howard got himself a wife - see that brand new ring shining on my finger? He looks sort of kinda happy, I think.

 Of course, I only married him so I could get a cake - but don't tell him that.

The next evening , he looks a bit more pensive - as in, 'What the hell just happened?' And me? Well, I'm full of cake.

And now, here we are at Gary Point Park, on the opposite side of the country. No cake. And  I bet he's sizing up the babe in the bikini halfway down the beach. (Only kidding! There is no babe halfway down the beach - just one, and she's sitting right beside him!)

I really like this picture, even if I am two-toned. And we had a wonderful day at the beach, with Nikkie, Christopher and Elizabeth, ending with a lovely Fish'n'Chip dinner at Dave's Fish 'n' Chips - thanks to Nikkie and Steve. Now we're home, sweltering in a hot heat wave, and melting in our skin.

So I bet you're all wondering now, what did I do to cool down? Well, first of all, a cold, damp cloth circling the back of my neck, then a Bacardi Lemonade Spritzer, and then a look at my old letters from the winter of '93. Let me share part of a letter to my brother Cliff.

January 23, 1993
YESSSS!!!! It snowed, it blowed, it freezing rained! The buses couldn't run, or roll, whatever. So we had the whole morning off, and I spent it really well. I stayed in bed. School started at 1pm, and 6 of my students didn't bother to come. Then the class had a gym class, so I had a prep period. So all in all, I had a very nice day.

After school, I had an adventure. I went to a lady's house in Port Rexton to pick up some rummage she was donating to our Rummage Sale. First I walked in a long icy lane to knock at the wrong door. Then I found the right house, but had to climb a snow bank about 3 feet high, then wade through about 5" if icy slush (non-alcoholic, unfortunately) to get the rummage. I went back to the school to drop it off, and left my keys in the truck while I took it to the office. So when I came back to my truck, I couldn't find my keys. Rod, the grade 5 teacher who was supposed to be having the Rummage Sale with me was brushing the snow off his front window, and I just knew he had my keys. I just walked over to his driver's door and said, 'Fine, you can keep my keys. I'll just take your truck.'

Have you ever seen a grown man scramble like crazy? Cos he knew I would have driven it away. One day last spring, my friend Carolyn and I found his keys (they were just sort of lying around in his jacket pocket, anyone could have picked them up) and I drove his car to the supermarket parking lot, and then we put a FOR SALE sign in the window. He didn't think that was very funny, but Carolyn and I were certainly very proud of it.

It's neat here, having the computer in the one corner of the dining-room, with the garbage can on the other side of the half-wall that separates me from the kitchen. So I type a letter, and just reach around the corner to deposit my empty booze bottles in the garbage. Tropikiwi cooler bottles, really. Lady-like booze.

 My co-conspirator and bestest friend Carolyn and our buddy Rod, sometime in the last century when moustaches (obviously) were in.

And I don't think I actually put my bottles in the garbage - I'm sure I would have brought them back to the liquor store for my dimes. I don't think I've changed that much. I don't mean changed in looks.