I have just returned home from my wonderful restful and peaceful vacation out to Vancouver Island. I flew out to Victoria and Melanie met me at the airport. We stopped at some farms along the way back into the city and she bought vegetables. We then went to Rebar restaurant for brunch. Then we went back to her apartment and rested for a while and then drove down by the beach and watched the ships and boats in the waters. It was so peaceful there by the ocean. There was a nice little breeze coming off the water and the sun was so nice and warm. Then we drove out to Buchart Gardens. I got the brilliant idea that maybe I should rent a scooter wheelchair to scoot around the gardens, and I am sure glad I did. They brought it to the gardens from Medichair in Sidney, B.C. and had it waiting for me when we arrived. It sure saved me a whole bunch of walking on my leg. Every Saturday night at the Gardens they have a fire works display and so we didn't go out to the Gardens till around 3:30 pm so that we could walk around and see all the gorgeous flowers and then stayed for the fire works display. It was quite the show. It would put the Calgary Stampede fireworks to shame. The whole sky lit up for the whole show with spinners and some going off at the left hand side and then they would travel across the horizon to the right side and by the time they got to the right side they would start again at the left hand side. It took an hour and a half for the whole show. It was marvellous. The traffiic getting out of the park wasn't so marvelous, but we endured. I took lots of pictures of the beautiful flowers and shrubs in the gardens. I even took a picture of a bee in one flower. It was late when we arrived back to the apartment.
Then on Sunday we rested up before we took a tour in a double decker bus all around the City Tour. It wa snicely narrated and I learned lots about the city of Victoria. There is one golf course that the greens fees are $150 a game, and a dress code is strongly adhered to or you don't get to play on the greens. The greens in the course were prestinely groomed. The City of Victoria pride themselves as being call the City of Gardens, so if the home owners do not keep their yard clean and cut and just to the tee the city will come along and keep up your yards and gardens and of course send you a little bill at the end of it. So everyone, even in the ordinary neighbourhoods look after their yards or else. They took up through some of the ritzy areas of the city and the gardens were all topriary on the bushes and hedges. The driver narrated all along the way. The tour took 90 mines from start to finish, so it was well worth the trip and we learned lots about their city. Then on Monday we took another drive down to the beaches and went for lunch downtown and then Mell dropped me at the bus station and I took the Greyhound up to Nanaimo where Marilyn Smith met me and I visited with them for the next three days.
Marilyn is a busy little gal. She works so hard. She cares for mental handicapped people. She at one time had three of them living with her, but two of the men died. One had meliomytheosis, which is a lung disease from working with asbethos in the ship yards of B.C. His name was Jeff and he was an english fellow. Very nice fellow, but just needed assistance in taking his medications until he got so sick he had to be hospitalized and then he finally passed away last year. Donald had the complusive syndrome where he had to wash his hands all the time. Marilyn gave him the job of waching the chicken eggs, so her eggs were always nice and clean to sell to her egg customers. Donald just passed away two weeks ago with cancer. Now Marilyn only has Sally. She is quite the Sally. She has a kitty cat named Hilda. Hilda is the best looked after cat you ever did see. Marilyn really doesn't like cats in the house, so Sally picks up the cat and take her outside to go wee wee, and trapes her back to the bedroom and stays there and babysits her all day long. She either rests on her bed or just sits and watches TV in her room with Hilda. Then she will come out of her room to help set the table and wash up the dishes for Marilyn. She does the laundry and just little jobs around the house. I wanted to put her in my suitcase and bring Sally home with me. She is a very clean and lovely lady. She told me she was 72 years old but only looks like she should be around 50. Every morning she get up and showers and put on her make up for her cat. Once in a while she goes to a community program for these people who get together to coffee and chat. Every day she goes out for a walk and come back to the house. She is quite the Sally.
Marilyn is a busy lady looking after her people and feeding her chickens and ducks and turkeys, so she has chores to do night and morning. Then she keeps her prestine yard up too. Leo is not well any more to help outside with things. He has gained a lot of weight and so he just can't do a lot, which leaves a lot on Marilyn's shoulders to cut the grass and look after the acreage. She has a small little cabin 12 x 12 feet in the yard that she rents out. She had a old guy living there, but they finally kicked him out cause he was so cantancuous. Marilyn would always fix him a supper and one day he threw the plate back at Donald when he took it out to him, and told him to quit bringing that SH__T. He only had one leg as he lost one leg to diabetis. So he really didn't need much room to get around in. He had a single bed, a bathroom and a kitchen was all he really needed. Marilyn had the cottage fixed up real cute, but he was too hard to handle any more, so Marilyn kicked him out and sent him to a home for cantancuous old men. He surely will not get fed as good as Marilyn fed him ever in the home. If Marilyn made a peach pie she would always share a piece with him or Thankgiving turkey dinner or Christmas dinner. The old guy's kids didn't look after him at all.
Then on Thursday Marilyn, her friend Bernie and daughter Kerri drove me up to Courtney, where I met up with Jackie West. Jackie is an old friend from Southminister United Young Couples club we used to belong to. She has divorced twice and has married the third husband. So we had a lot of catching up to do. Her and Jack are very involved in senior lawn bowling. She was hosting a bowling tournament for the Canadian Blind Sports Association. You wouldn't think those people could lawn bowl but they woulld put the other sighted people to shame with their scores. They lay a string down the middle of the lanes and they can judge their distance by their sighted director telling them where the jack was laid. It was quite the thing to sit and watch for two days. The weather was perfect with no rain. Jackie was very busy keeping everyone in line for the whole week. Then they ended off with a banquet and awards presentations on Friday night.
Then on Saturday, Jackie had to go to Parksville with a novice lady bowler from their club to coach her at the Provincial championships there. So she called her daughter Tamara and asked if she would come and take me out for the day touring the signs of Courtney and Comox. She drove me up the Mt. Washington where they ski in the winter time, and the kids ride mountain bikes and quads in the summer time. We rode the ski lift up to the top of the mountain and seen the gorgeous sights from the top. You could look over the whole strait to the mainland and all the little islands in the ocean. It was goregous up there. Then I caught my flight back to Calgary at 7 pm last night.
Now tomorrow it will be back to work once again, but I have had a real restful vacation and will be ready to go back to work in the morning. Now I have to go for groceries so I better scoot.
Love you all.
Shirley
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