My friend Petra and I drove to Osoyoos on Monday, which was the newly-minted Family Day holiday.  We picked mom up and had lunch at the N’Kmip Winery which wasn’t good as usual, though the view’s lovely.  It’s only in rural Canada that one would drive 100 miles each way for lunch.

The night before Petra and I went to see the play The 39 Steps, put on by the Kelowna Actor’s Studio.  It’s a dinner theatre, so we met at 6:30, ate, then the show started at 8:00 PM.  You know me, I’m always in shock when something starts at that time of night as it’s my bedtime.

But one must challenge oneself from time to time, just to be reminded that life can’t be comfy all the time.  My idea of bliss is sitting on the couch with my dog, watching TV.  So every once in a while to be forced out of that routine is probably healthy.

Because I’m turning 60 in the summer, the government kindly sent my pension contribution statement.  It appears I’d get a paltry amount if I decide to take it now, and so I can see I’ll be yoked to the vagaries of work until I’m 65.

But I told myself to cheer up, as that’s really just 64 months away, and you know how time flies at our age.  It’s an excellent opportunity to be thinking about all the things I want to do when I have more time.

Regardless of that, I’m going to order a couple of bee hives this spring, as there’s no point in postponing that project.  You’ll recall I’ve got the the bee suit and smoker, so it seems silly not to get the bees to go along with it all.

As well, I plug along in my creative writing pursuits, and with any luck will have a short story to submit to the Okanagan Short Story Contest.  I was humiliated yet not surprised to see the story I submitted to CBC’s short tory contest contained a typo!

And they say it right on the site: Check your submission.  I was like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve read it a hundred times’, and sent it.  Then a couple of days later I idly opened the document only to see I’d somehow cut off half a sentence.  I must’ve copied and pasted and didn’t re-check.

Hence this submission’s going to be gone over with a fine-toothed comb before being sent.  I wonder if Alice Munro started like this, but somehow doubt it.  Perhaps Erma Bombeck, whose style my writing somewhat resembles, had these issues in the beginning.

Another project that’s looming is exterior house paining.  Not by me, don’t worry.  But I have to call a couple of companies or handymen to get quotes.  I’m so poor at that step.  I just want to have a fairy come in the night to do things while I sleep.

But really, living here gives me so many nice pursuits that working isn’t all that pesky as I don’t have to leave home in order to do it.  It’s almost mean of the government to send a document like that when all it does is confirm the worst: Carry on!