Tomorrow at noon Denis is coming to pick me up and driving me to the airport. First I fly to Vancouver, hang around the airport for three hours, and then at 5:30 PM my plane leaves for Honolulu. I’m really excited about it.

Due to my prior experiences, I plan on taking a couple of sandwiches with me. When Marilyn and I flew to Kauai in 2009 our plane left around the same time. The staff of our airline were kind enough to announce there was no food whatsoever on the flight, so if anyone wanted food, to please go to a vendor and get some.

Because I’m loathe to pay $12 for a tuna sandwich, I plan on making my own at home. I also have a couple of books ready to go, and will probably cause some sort of a sensation as I sit and read, turning pages, while every other human peers at a screen. The younger ones will come and ask me what it is I’m holding, and what I’m doing.

I finally got with the program, and attended a federal Liberal volunteer meeting on Wednesday night. There were perhaps 16 of us, with 4 party officials IE the riding president, campaign manager, and so on in attendance. I’m looking forward to the upcoming campaign.

Nicky was shocked when I told him I was leaving the house after dark and going to a meeting. His new Japanese girlfriend is surprised how neither he nor I leave this house. I said to her we have an expression that goes the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

I’m also going to re-visit beekeeping, despite my prior negative experience. You’ll recall my hive came infested with a fungus that killed the bees, and then in the spring a mother bear and her three cubs came and demolished the wooden hive.

This time I’m getting what are called nucs, or baby bees. Also, I’m getting a nice clean hive and I’m attending a workshop given by the vendor on May 16th. That way surely to God I’m finally going to achieve my goal of being a beekeeper.

I went to both my GP and chiropractor on Friday, still on my quest to solve the migraine problem. My GP ordered neck X rays as she thinks I may have arthritis in there, but as I said to the chiropractor afterwards, what will it mean if I do? What does a person do about it as there’s no cure for arthritis?

Mom pooh poohed arthritis and pointed out I have no neck pain, and I agreed, but said I have headaches and a grinding sound in my neck, so perhaps I do have it. If I do, all the sites say one has to do physical exercises to strengthen neck muscles. What the heck I’m doing at the gym four times a week I don’t know.

So in other words, no one knows why I have migraines, and I’m continuing to explore treatments on my own. Now I’m taking a supplement called tryptophan which is recommended for migraines, and also upping the vitamin B6 and water. This doesn’t bode well for the next few decades, does it?

But in the meantime, I have the opportunity to absorb one full week of vitamin D, so that should do this old carcass a lot of good. Aloha!

Honest to God, one day melts into the next, and I rarely know what day of the week it is.  I find the gym helpful that way, as I can usually recall whatever workout I’ve been at and then it helps me remember what day it is.  IE if I’ve done Denise’s class, it must be Tuesday.

On sunny days I can see how filthy the house is, so I’ve been cleaning things such as the China cabinets.  I took out all the items, cleaned them, dusted the shelves and cleaned the glass panels, and then put all of the dear things back.  A very small minority were culled.  It’s been a very satisfying activity.

When I was cleaning one of the cabinets I was reminded of the quail egg that exploded inside there last spring.  Though a tiny egg, its innards sure spread far inside that shelf.  There was dried egg yolk on many surfaces including my little antique clocks.

I was thrilled when I found that intact egg, as most are damaged from the fall.  This one was pristine, so I thought it’d look adorable among my antiques.

The sun shines in through the dining room window and streams into the cabinet, so of course one day due all of the heat, pow, the egg blew.  And it took days before I really looked over there and went what the heck’s up with that egg?  Then I looked at the shelf where it sat and saw the blown contents.

I thought I’d gotten rid of all of the egg yolk, but any forensics expert will tell you it’s pretty hard to get rid of all the evidence.  Which reminds me, I’ve been watching a series called Forensics which profiles a new murder in each episode and then shows how forensics helped solve the case.

This may or may not be overkill, but I bought two disposable underwater cameras for my trip to Hawaii.  That would be a lot of fish encounters at 54 shots.  But Renate and her husband are taking me to a marine reserve called Hanauma Bay to snorkel and the websites say the water’s teeming with fish.

I asked Renate if they like herring, and of course they do as she’s German and he’s Danish.  I said I plan to make my granny’s herring salad while there.  This is so ethnic, and if you don’t like herring, you’d really hate this.  But it’s just a mixture of chopped hard boiled eggs, cooked potatoes and beets, dill pickles and pickled herring, mixed with a good amount of mayonnaise.

Just like last Friday, today the nice chiropractor said to me, “So do you have any exciting plans for the weekend?”  As usual, I had to try and figure out where in the week we were so I could answer appropriately and quickly recalled it was Friday.

I said something to the effect of you must be joking, as I felt explaining feeling wild with excitement over a cleaning project would fall flat.

However next Friday when I see him I’m going to be able to answer, “Well yes actually I’m off to Hawaii to snorkel with crazy big groups of lovely fish.”

When Denis came over on Boxing Day, you’ll recall I’d made a pot roast.  The three of them like lashings of mashed potatoes and Yorkshire pudding covered in gravy.  They were sitting together at one of the table, which seats six, there were two empty chairs, and then I sat at the opposite end to Denis.  IE our old spots.

As soon as we started eating Wrecks jumped onto the table beside me, as is our custom, and I began giving him small bits of meat which he was eating on the tablecloth.  The three of them were screaming “ew” and making all sorts of disparaging remarks about my cat.  I replied calmly, “Why does it hurt you when my cat and I enjoy dining together?”

Even though Denis and Nicky hadn’t done a thing, Luke replied, “I don’t see any one of you three getting girlfriends or boyfriends any time soon.”  How insulting!  I said I already have two boyfriends, my dog and this cat.

It snowed for 24 hours, starting on Sunday and ending on Monday afternoon, causing a record snowfall.  It’s the most snow that’s fallen in that amount of time in 40 years.  It took me yesterday and today, shovelling in twenty minute increments, to be able to get my car out of the carport and onto the driveway.  Nicky did the long hill of the drieway, but it’s still coated in compact snow, so if it freezes it’ll be like a skating rink.

In a way it’s been great as I saved a bunch of money just by staying home.  I missed the gym, but then with two hours of shovelling I probably expended as many calories as I do in the classes.  And God knows our homes store enough food for months, never mind three days, so there hasn’t been any noticeable lack of anything.

But tomorrow I have the chiro at 10:40 so I simply have to get out of here.  I’m going to take my friend Phyllis’ advice and start seeing a chiro to work on the migraines.  She said try it, and certainly I want to do anything necessary to be rid of them.  When I was in Osoyoos Dr. Hamilton visited and said over time a lot of people just get too old for them and they seem to stop on their own.  Hallelujah!

Did I tell you I’m off to Hawaii for a week on January 26th?  I’m very excited as I’ve never been to Oahu before.  I’ll be staying with Renate and her husband Peter, as they’re based there for three years while he manages a golf course.  Otherwise they live in Palm Springs, and you’ll recall that was the site of our reunion last year.

Because I was in a bit of a funk, likely as a hangover from the flu, I started re-reading the Power of Now.  Have you read it?  You really should as it helps a person get a grip on stupid thoughts which none of us need to be having in the first place.  Why recall negative things as it does nothing except ruin your present, otherwise good moment?

I was glad I’d read the book about the 33 trapped Chilean miners just prior to this snowstorm.  I had read about their hellish 69 days in a scalding hot, humid, dark mine, and how they’d still work and dig at the rocks.  It helped me persevere shovel after shovel of snow when I wanted to pack it in entirely and just stay here until March.

Never mind, in less than three weeks I’ll be on the beach, not giving a whit about snow.  I sent a link about the snowstorm to Renate so she’ll understand my joy upon arrival.