Yesterday I visited Sharen and we had a lively conversation. Recalling her many years in California’s Hemet she said: “Oh, I just loved to drive”, to which I replied: “I know you did, but you are still kind of wheeling around.” To which she replied with a smile: “I’m pretending”, at which both of just broke up. Sharen’s edgy humour is just my type as well, so we have our laughs.
She recalled, how as young girls she and her sister Helen went to scare the neighbours at Halloween, barging through deep snow over to the next farmhouse. Face masks made from black stockings did the trick. The wife called for her man and he recognised the voices of his neighbour girls. After which the little witches were treated to hot ‘chocola’ a Dutch or Danish sounding word for chocolate.
Sharen: Oh, I just loved to dance!
Then there was the story of going to the various dances with the three brothers and the two sisters. ‘Oh, I just loved to dance’, Sharen recalled, reliving some of those experiences. The six of them, in Dad’s car, would visit all the dances in the region and then pair of with six partners to make a dozen!
‘Oh, the fun we would have!’ Sharen recalled and as I watched her in her wheel chair - now a few months away from 101 - I think: “No electronics, no apps or pads, no DJ, just some records maybe or a local band in a barn or hall having the plain fun of being together as nature came and comes, then still unmolested by technology”. But, I just thought that, as I watched Sharen relive her moments of youth having fun with her siblings, of which younger Helen is the only one yet.
And as Sharen recalls, I enjoy her fun with her, knowing enough about her life to be able to relate and respond to her remarks. In that, I like to encourage her to recall her times in Vancouver, Bowness and Standard, where she was born, as well as those when she lived ‘On the dessert’ in Hemet, CA.
I did get my printer ink at London drugs, but discovered at home that there is still ink left in all the cartridges. Now I’m prepared, as the slogan of the Scouts proclaims. Since I was so surprised, I decided to familiarise myself a bit more with my new printer by running some test patterns and trying out the various menu options.
After supper I added pictures to all the November Daily Entries, renaming about a dozen odd named image files. I had omitted a hyphen from them, while all the others did have one. It was a cumbersome search, find and change operation, because the html files and the image file names had to made to correspond and then uploaded and tested. But, it all is done after about two hours of concentrated work; this is good for the brain some health pundits proclaim. I hope it wont swell too much due to all this exercise!
Later today, lunch with Herman and then coffee with Don at the Kingsland market, where I’ll pick up a soup bone and all that will take care of the afternoon. I did wash my car yesterday and bought a honey cake at the Mid Town Coop. This combined with my visits to Sharen and the ink stop kept me away from home for about three hours until three thirty.
Then came tea with the said honey cake and some internet news until it was time to make dinner. This was followed by my computer work starting at six pm, with some coffee break later on until the nine pm CBC news. If Peter Mansbridge’s wife is a feminist, would she go by her maiden name I wonder? Often!
< ca 10am~
