I’m off to Germany tomorrow and am in the process of packing. I got those packing cubes, the plastic cases that you can zip up tight, and man, can you ever get a lot of clothes into one of those. I can’t believe my carry-on can hold so much, but those cubes compress the living daylights out of everything. It’ll be heavy, as I have jam and maple butter to bring to the relatives.

I wonder how successful I can possibly be given last summer my German relatives were dismayed to find bottles of wine and beer steins, carefully packed inside pounds of clothes, were smashed in transit. I put the jam and maple butter into baggies so that if they do get crushed, my clothes won’t be quite so heavily coated. I plan to check the bag, so fingers crossed.

In preparation for being away I’ve been working like an indentured servant on this property. It’s a lot more like farming than gardening as my weary body will attest. I finally decided working around a variegated ground cover that’s invaded every bed wasn’t workable, so have spent hours and hours shovelling and shaking out roots, then tossing the nasty plant. I know it’ll return, but at least I’ve given it a bit of a shock.

I was in Osoyoos for four long nights as Mom’s nighttime caregiver took some time off. It wasn’t too bad as there’s always so much to do there, either in the house or yard, so the time passed. Luke decided working isn’t really his thing, so quit his job, and has been spending time mowing, pruning and doing general yard maintenance which is good.

My friend Joan’s going to stay here with the dogs and cats. Calvin said the dogs howl at night when I’m away, so this’ll put a stop to that. I made a couple of dinners for her and froze them so she can start with that, and then she’ll have to get a few groceries for herself. Not much as the house always seems to have an awful lot of stuff in it.

I did a bit of volunteering for the Liberals on Saturday by handing out pamphlets at the Farmers Market. I was accompanied by a nice young woman who’d never done this type of thing before so after observing me accost a couple of innocent shoppers, she quickly got the hang of it. I said basically it’s like being a Jehovah’s Witness, you just have to suck it up and approach a person.

Most people were nice, and either said no thanks, or else they were going to vote Liberal and said so. But naturally there are always people who have to ensure you know they’re not only not going to vote Liberal, but that you’re the biggest pariah on Earth for stumping for them. To one agitated man after a long tirade, I replied, “well I guess we’ll just have to let the public decide.”

Mom’s just decided that she no longer wants to take her prescription meds, so I called the pharmacy and cancelled. She hasn’t had her high blood pressure meds since April 6 and is fine, so not sure what’s going to happen there. But at 100 one has to assume nothing good.

Even though I was just in Germany 18 months ago Doris insisted that I return, and now she’s been in hospital and is in a rehabilitation clinic, so I’ll be staying with her sister Hannelore instead. It’s quite annoying this happened, but she’s 94 and at that age anything is to be expected. But with our family’s genes I just assume everyone will continue.

My greatest hope is that I spend two weeks eating Schwabian food, that’s all. Nothing else matters.