I survived the reunion, however it was nip and tuck at the beginning.  Renate (“Sam”) arrived as scheduled and spent the night, then as we were waiting for Alison and her husband JT, we decided to go shopping.  As we all know, when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping.

We had a pleasant couple of hours at thrift and were quite surprised to arrive home to Mr. Rooter’s truck parked on the driveway.  I was informed the outlet to the septic tank was plugged, and crap had backed up in the shower stall while Nicky was showering, hence his call to Mr. Rooter.

The first Mr. Rooter person insisted the septic tank must be full and stated we should lift the lid and check it.  He demanded a couple of hundred of dollars for that and left.  Nicky started to dig, at which point Alison and JT arrived and were informed they had to pee on the lawn.

Alison replied, “Damn, I shoulda gone at the restaurant.”  We were basically helpless and finally Nicky got the engine hoist out and lifted the several hundred-pound cement lid and looked in.  Nope, not full.

I then called Mr. Rooter again, and said we needed someone back here.  A new person came who had the sense to lift the basement toilet and snake out the line, thereby dislodging the plug.  Another $600 for that, so an expensive day on the ranch.

The next day JT headed back to Toronto, and Alison, Sam and I went to shop for the groceries for the reunion.  It wasn’t too bad, as it was just $300 for seven people to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days.

We headed up to the house at Kalamalka Lake and were met by the manager who showed us around.  I said to Sam and Alison quick let’s pick the best rooms before the others arrive, which we did.  I had a lovely lakeside room with a queen-sized bed.

Right at the dot of 4:00 PM Rhonda, Penny, Mary and Phyllis arrived and began to stake out the house and the rooms.  After a bit of back and forth everyone was settled into one of the rooms.

Friday night involved barbecued salmon and sitting outside talking and drinking.  Saturday saw a bit of napping and some shopping as Sam thought she’d forgotten her bathing suit, bought a new one, then found her own in her suitcase.

Saturday night Alison made a lovely chicken Marbella recipe, and I’d made my chocolate chunk cake which served as dessert for all three nights.  Phyllis insisted I perform, so I tried to get them all to engage in karaoke with me, but they stunk at it.  You know how you have to be right on top of the highlighting of the word to stay in sync with the music and I was screaming at them, you’re too slow!  Or you’re too fast!

Finally, I performed the old standby, Dream a Little Dream of Me, and they were satisfied with that.  I think most people want me to have turned from a tone-deaf quacker into Celine Dion, but that just didn’t happen.

On Sunday we had a fab adventure as Penny had arranged for us to rent bikes and go on the 26 km rail trail along Kalamalka and Wood Lakes.  They picked us up at the end and drove us back to our vehicles, which were parked at Predator Ridge.

That night we had steak salad, barbecued by Miss Alison, and who would be feted each night by Mary making us say in a chorus “Goooood cookin’, Alison.”

We all felt satisfied at another great reunion, with everyone having good visits and reminisces.  Phyllis brought old photos and we poured over those, feeling perplexed where those thin, smooth-skinned lil’ gals had gone.

I’m sad we didn’t take a photo of the empties when we checked out of there on Monday morning as we had a good lot of them.  And this with two teetotalers in the group, so ya know, those of us drinking had to really pick up the slack.

But basically we’re all rockin’ being 65 and are loving it.  There was alcohol, there was nudity, there was sentimentality over Liz not being there except in spirit form, so we experienced it all once again.  Next reunion 2024.