The arrow has to draw
back to fly ahead. -Proverb
Me and mags sitting in the sun on the deck!!
Me and mags sitting in the sun on the deck!!
Hi Goils!
Left Cochrane at 7:30am after a tasty breakfast of yogurt, blueberries and granola that Zircon prepared for us. He walked us to the car and we wished him Good Luck with his coming move to Medicine Hat. Unfortunately, we won't see Jim when he is in Vancouver towards the end of August as we'll still be in Falcon when he is in the city, visiting other friends there and in Duncan/Victoria. Once we were out of Calgary it was very, very smooth sailing for the entire day's drive. No traffic to speak of, quite unlike Sunday when the roads were literally jam-packed from the time we left at 4:45am to the moment we hit the Trans Canada to the Port Mann, through Abbotsford to the start of the Coquihalla. A little bit of a breather while on the Coquihalla until we left Kamloops and then the on-coming streams of campers and semis never let up through Chase and Salmon Arm, Sicamous and Revelstoke, Golden and Field. The heavy traffic persisted all the way to Banff and Canmore but was far more manageable on the uninterrupted, divided section one encounters once you cross the BC/Alberta border. Nevertheless, with the weekend coming to a close, all the hikers and mountain bikers were heading home and it was like rush hour all the way to the turn-off for Cochrane.
I drove through Regina and then Cora Lee took over just past Indian Head. I snoozed until just before the Saskatchewan/Manitoba border and close to 7:00pm we were in Virden. We'd decided to stop at the Co-Op store there to pick up some salad fixings as we'd told the Grays not to wait on dinner for us. After we had picked up our groceries we headed for Kenton and pulled up in front of their house at 8:15pm. There were no cars parked outside which I thought was a bit strange but figured that with their busy lives they were probably off somewhere. As I approached the steps a medium-sized, white dog came around the side of the house and gave a few half-hearted woofs. I let him sniff my hand and after he licked it a few times we were new best friends. Rang the bell and tried the handle but the door was locked. Walked around to the back door and it was open so I let myself in and opened the front door for Cora Lee who was still in the car.
I hadn't remembered the two cats who were inside and they dashed out as we were bringing in our bags while the pooch was more than happy to stay inside and investigate our luggage. He was new to us but I assumed he had been acquired since our visit last September. No note to say where Famiglia Gray might be but there were clean sheets on the end of the bed in the room we have often stayed in so we assumed it was meant for us. Once bags were in and cooler unpacked, I had a quick shower while Cora Lee read, Fido, (for that was the name I had given him), sprawled on the floor at her feet, his head resting gently on her right foot, claiming ownership of this particular human.
Once I'd showered and changed, I did the few dishes in the sink, (Fewer than on past visits, I must say. Furthermore, one of pieces on the counter was a bbq rotisserie spit, together with the tines that hold the meat in place, lending support to Coriandre’s theory that the family had gone on a picnic or to a ball game that evening.), and started to prepare the salad. While I did this, Coriandre fried up the haloumi we'd brought along to munch while on the road but had not done so. I opened a bottle of Trivento Sauvignon Blanc and we sipped as we prepared the food. By about 9:30pm everything was ready and so we sat down to enjoy the meal, wondering, from time to time, when Famiglia Gray would turn up. After the delish salad I did the dishes and Cora Lee returned to her book, Fido, still adoring her. While making the kitchen ship-shape, I asked Coramandel if dog had a tag on its collar and sure enough, Fido became Yoda! Cora Lee asked him if his name was due to his large pointed ears but thinking the connection was rather obvious, he didn’t even bother to open his eyes but did give his tail a slight twitch. To toast our new found friend’s true name, I opened a bottle of Nieto Sentiner, Mendoza, 2011, Malbec,14.5%, and we looked at our email, or at least Cora Lee did. She has G3 on her new, spiffy iPad so she had coverage. I couldn’t gain access, as I didn’t have the password for the WiFi network. I presumed they had changed carriers as in the past my lap-top had “remembered” all the necessary system details and simply logged me on once psswd had first been entered.
By now it was close to 11:00pm and we decided we couldn’t wait any longer. Corinne had made up the bed earlier and I had taken Yoda’s mat from the corner of the room, (It was covered in his hair and Cora Lee had started sneezing as soon as she walked into the bedroom!), shortly after we arrived, (We had to keep the door closed as he decided that if his sleeping mat wasn’t in the room then he was supposed to sleep at the foot of our bed and had been most happy to lie there while the "maid" was changing the sheets!), so once we had brushed and flossed we were ready to sleep. It had been a long day and we were both tired. Before turning out the light I let Yoda outside. The two cats were still out since before dinner and I decided to leave them out, figuring they could survive, being hardy country felines. Yoda looked a tad mournful as I closed the door but since he was out when we arrived I figured he would be fine as well.
Coriandre was already asleep by the time I had ushered Yoda into the dark so I set the alarm for 7:00am and turned off the light. Didn’t take me long to drift off as the bed was very comfortable and the window fan kept the room at just the right temperature for a sound sleep. I did wonder if the Grays would return that night and was a bit puzzled that we had not heard from them, one way or another. Dallas had Corinne’s number as we’d called his cell, using her phone, from Cochrane. Again, I assumed that they had decided to stay, wherever they were, for the night, for whatever reasons. In retrospect, I suppose we should have called them but by the time it looked like they were likely not coming home, we felt it might be too late to disturb them in their camper or tent or at a friend’s home. Still slightly baffled, I did wonder if they had taken a boarder, (Yoda’s owner?), now that Alexander, their son, had graduated from Engineering at Red River and moved to Watrous, Saskatchewan.
By now it was close to 11:00pm and we decided we couldn’t wait any longer. Corinne had made up the bed earlier and I had taken Yoda’s mat from the corner of the room, (It was covered in his hair and Cora Lee had started sneezing as soon as she walked into the bedroom!), shortly after we arrived, (We had to keep the door closed as he decided that if his sleeping mat wasn’t in the room then he was supposed to sleep at the foot of our bed and had been most happy to lie there while the "maid" was changing the sheets!), so once we had brushed and flossed we were ready to sleep. It had been a long day and we were both tired. Before turning out the light I let Yoda outside. The two cats were still out since before dinner and I decided to leave them out, figuring they could survive, being hardy country felines. Yoda looked a tad mournful as I closed the door but since he was out when we arrived I figured he would be fine as well.
Coriandre was already asleep by the time I had ushered Yoda into the dark so I set the alarm for 7:00am and turned off the light. Didn’t take me long to drift off as the bed was very comfortable and the window fan kept the room at just the right temperature for a sound sleep. I did wonder if the Grays would return that night and was a bit puzzled that we had not heard from them, one way or another. Dallas had Corinne’s number as we’d called his cell, using her phone, from Cochrane. Again, I assumed that they had decided to stay, wherever they were, for the night, for whatever reasons. In retrospect, I suppose we should have called them but by the time it looked like they were likely not coming home, we felt it might be too late to disturb them in their camper or tent or at a friend’s home. Still slightly baffled, I did wonder if they had taken a boarder, (Yoda’s owner?), now that Alexander, their son, had graduated from Engineering at Red River and moved to Watrous, Saskatchewan.
To be continued...
Slept soundly until 6:00am and thought I’d just close my eyes for a few more minutes. Woke up a few minutes before 7:00am, just in time to turn off the alarm before it could wake Her Majesty! Rest of house was quiet so I assumed our hosts had not arrived during the night. Went to the back door to find Yoda and his feline companions eager to come inside. Yoda circled my legs so closely that I had to be careful not to trip over him on my way into the kitchen. The cats, for their part, immediately leapt up onto a dog food dispenser by the front door to have breakfast. I went to the fridge to investigate the possibility of overlefts and came up with some potatoes and the remains of beef kebabs with mushrooms and onions. Delighted by my find, I put the spuds in a frying pan and went to rouse Coriandre. She had a quick shower while I finished preparing breakfast.
Turning the pan to a low heat, I went to have my own shower and found Cora Lee doing her face in front of the mirror. While beautifying she had noticed a vial of pills on the vanity and the prescription stated that they belonged to one "Kristen Neufeld". She thought that the medication might possibly have belonged to Alexander’s girlfriend. At any rate, she said that if it didn’t, she hoped that “Kristen was an understanding Mennonite girl!” The feeling that the Grays didn’t actually live here anymore was growing stronger and stronger.
Nevertheless, I took my shower and while I was bathing, more evidence for the Gray’s not inhabiting the house surfaced. When Corinne went to the back door to let Yoda out she noticed some mail on a shoe stand. All of it was addressed to one “Cody Jones” and we had not seen any other evidence of letters or junk mail for the Grays. By the time I was squeaky clean, Coriandre was in full fuss mode, convinced that we were in someone else’s home. (Who's been sleeping in my bed", asked Mama Bear?) She wasted little time calling Dallas who immediately asked: “Where are you?” Countering his question, Cora Lee replied: “Where are you?” “At the farm”, Dallas replied! “We waited for you until midnight and assumed you had gone on to Winnipeg!” Unbeknownst to us, they had sold their house in Kenton this past April and assumed we knew this to be the case. When we had visited last September they had mentioned that they were planning to move to the home Bill and Norma had occupied until it became impossible for Bill to care for her, with her slip into Alzheimers. They had never directly mentioned the move and simply assumed we knew that they had left Kenton. As soon as we discovered they were not living in Kenton, all the pieces/clues fell into place and we realized that like Goldilocks, we had stayed overnight in someone else’s home! As soon as Coriandre finished talking to Dallas she made haste to vacate the premises, to git out of Dodge! I was a bit disappointed as I’d concocted a more than wonderful breakfast of overlefts. Coriandre would have none of them, guilt overcoming hunger, but I was determined to eat my share, (After all, I’d done the dishes, scrubbed the rotisserie and put everything away in cupboards or drawers, [probably not the proper home for any of the utensils or containers I'd found on the counter when we arrived, but thereby giving Kristen the added pleasure of a bit of a treasure hunt when she finally reclaimed her kitchen!]), and, after relishing the ab/fab concoction I'd created, I shook my head sadly at the uneaten portion in the frying pan, and against my better judgement, put the overlefts of the scrumptious overlefts back into the fridge! ("Who's been eating my porridge?" whined Baby Bear!)
Coramandel scribbled a brief note of apology, I put a somewhat confused Yoda out the back door, letting both cats back in, (leaving the pet situation as found), locked the front door and beat a hasty retreat, out the back door, to the car. Cora Lee wouldn’t even let me put my seat belt on, insisting I drive away before the enraged owners returned. Convulsed with nervous laughter we made our way to Road 71 North, a few kilometers away, to pull into the Gray homestead, a farm I’d been visiting since the early ‘50’s. Kimberley, the youngest daughter, and her parents, Judy and Dallas, came to greet us and ushered us inside where we learned the very sad end to the tale of Freeloading Gone Terribly Wrong!
Once l had talked to Cora Lee he phoned Cody’s brother’s company in Virden to explain the mishap. The two brothers owned an oil hauling business working in the Virden oil patch. Dallas was aware of this having sold their house to Cody and Kristen. When the brother answered the phone he told Dallas he was in Winnipeg at the General Hospital. Apparently Cody had been involved in some sort of serious accident and he was in Intensive Care. From the sound of things, the prognosis was not a good one. Both the brother, (We never learned his name.), and Kristen had gone to Winnipeg to be with Cody. This was the reason that there was nobody home and the house was left as we found it and why nobody returned to find us sleeping in their bed. What otherwise was a pretty funny story had a more than upsetting ending, at least as far as the owners of the house were concerned.
Flashing forward, I just phoned Dallas, (Thursday, August 2nd, 10:00pm, CDT), to ask if he had heard about Cody’s condition. As it happened, he had seen Kristen driving home on his own way home that evening and followed her to the house. She had brought Cody home from hospital and he was, generally speaking, not suffering from any life threatening injuries, although he was “pretty cut up”, according to Dallas. He learned that Cody had been on a fishing trip with a friend and they were driving home, “hammered”, when Cody lost control of his truck crossing a set of railroad tracks. His fishing partner left the scene of the accident after the vehicle rolled and came to a stop. Police took Cody to Hamiota and then he was taken to Winnipeg for plastic surgery once he was stabilized. According to Dallas he bit off most of his lower lip as a result of the crash, along with suffering other serious facial lacerations/injuries. Dallas said that Cody didn’t want him to see his face but Dallas persisted and said he looked a mess.
When Dallas walked up to the house Yoda came to greet him and when Dallas said “Hi Yoda” the dog gave him a very quizzical look as Dallas had never seen him before. Kristen was just as puzzled until Dallas informed her of our extended stay. According to Dallas, she wasn’t at all upset by our “freeloading visit”, rather found it quite amusing, especially given the fact that Cody was now out of danger. Dallas said that he would invite them over for a drink, (I suppose Cody will be having soda water!), when we stay, on the farm, not in Kenton this time around, on our way back to Vancouver, so that we actually have a chance to meet our unknowing hosts!
Slept soundly until 6:00am and thought I’d just close my eyes for a few more minutes. Woke up a few minutes before 7:00am, just in time to turn off the alarm before it could wake Her Majesty! Rest of house was quiet so I assumed our hosts had not arrived during the night. Went to the back door to find Yoda and his feline companions eager to come inside. Yoda circled my legs so closely that I had to be careful not to trip over him on my way into the kitchen. The cats, for their part, immediately leapt up onto a dog food dispenser by the front door to have breakfast. I went to the fridge to investigate the possibility of overlefts and came up with some potatoes and the remains of beef kebabs with mushrooms and onions. Delighted by my find, I put the spuds in a frying pan and went to rouse Coriandre. She had a quick shower while I finished preparing breakfast.
Turning the pan to a low heat, I went to have my own shower and found Cora Lee doing her face in front of the mirror. While beautifying she had noticed a vial of pills on the vanity and the prescription stated that they belonged to one "Kristen Neufeld". She thought that the medication might possibly have belonged to Alexander’s girlfriend. At any rate, she said that if it didn’t, she hoped that “Kristen was an understanding Mennonite girl!” The feeling that the Grays didn’t actually live here anymore was growing stronger and stronger.
Nevertheless, I took my shower and while I was bathing, more evidence for the Gray’s not inhabiting the house surfaced. When Corinne went to the back door to let Yoda out she noticed some mail on a shoe stand. All of it was addressed to one “Cody Jones” and we had not seen any other evidence of letters or junk mail for the Grays. By the time I was squeaky clean, Coriandre was in full fuss mode, convinced that we were in someone else’s home. (Who's been sleeping in my bed", asked Mama Bear?) She wasted little time calling Dallas who immediately asked: “Where are you?” Countering his question, Cora Lee replied: “Where are you?” “At the farm”, Dallas replied! “We waited for you until midnight and assumed you had gone on to Winnipeg!” Unbeknownst to us, they had sold their house in Kenton this past April and assumed we knew this to be the case. When we had visited last September they had mentioned that they were planning to move to the home Bill and Norma had occupied until it became impossible for Bill to care for her, with her slip into Alzheimers. They had never directly mentioned the move and simply assumed we knew that they had left Kenton. As soon as we discovered they were not living in Kenton, all the pieces/clues fell into place and we realized that like Goldilocks, we had stayed overnight in someone else’s home! As soon as Coriandre finished talking to Dallas she made haste to vacate the premises, to git out of Dodge! I was a bit disappointed as I’d concocted a more than wonderful breakfast of overlefts. Coriandre would have none of them, guilt overcoming hunger, but I was determined to eat my share, (After all, I’d done the dishes, scrubbed the rotisserie and put everything away in cupboards or drawers, [probably not the proper home for any of the utensils or containers I'd found on the counter when we arrived, but thereby giving Kristen the added pleasure of a bit of a treasure hunt when she finally reclaimed her kitchen!]), and, after relishing the ab/fab concoction I'd created, I shook my head sadly at the uneaten portion in the frying pan, and against my better judgement, put the overlefts of the scrumptious overlefts back into the fridge! ("Who's been eating my porridge?" whined Baby Bear!)
Coramandel scribbled a brief note of apology, I put a somewhat confused Yoda out the back door, letting both cats back in, (leaving the pet situation as found), locked the front door and beat a hasty retreat, out the back door, to the car. Cora Lee wouldn’t even let me put my seat belt on, insisting I drive away before the enraged owners returned. Convulsed with nervous laughter we made our way to Road 71 North, a few kilometers away, to pull into the Gray homestead, a farm I’d been visiting since the early ‘50’s. Kimberley, the youngest daughter, and her parents, Judy and Dallas, came to greet us and ushered us inside where we learned the very sad end to the tale of Freeloading Gone Terribly Wrong!
Once l had talked to Cora Lee he phoned Cody’s brother’s company in Virden to explain the mishap. The two brothers owned an oil hauling business working in the Virden oil patch. Dallas was aware of this having sold their house to Cody and Kristen. When the brother answered the phone he told Dallas he was in Winnipeg at the General Hospital. Apparently Cody had been involved in some sort of serious accident and he was in Intensive Care. From the sound of things, the prognosis was not a good one. Both the brother, (We never learned his name.), and Kristen had gone to Winnipeg to be with Cody. This was the reason that there was nobody home and the house was left as we found it and why nobody returned to find us sleeping in their bed. What otherwise was a pretty funny story had a more than upsetting ending, at least as far as the owners of the house were concerned.
Flashing forward, I just phoned Dallas, (Thursday, August 2nd, 10:00pm, CDT), to ask if he had heard about Cody’s condition. As it happened, he had seen Kristen driving home on his own way home that evening and followed her to the house. She had brought Cody home from hospital and he was, generally speaking, not suffering from any life threatening injuries, although he was “pretty cut up”, according to Dallas. He learned that Cody had been on a fishing trip with a friend and they were driving home, “hammered”, when Cody lost control of his truck crossing a set of railroad tracks. His fishing partner left the scene of the accident after the vehicle rolled and came to a stop. Police took Cody to Hamiota and then he was taken to Winnipeg for plastic surgery once he was stabilized. According to Dallas he bit off most of his lower lip as a result of the crash, along with suffering other serious facial lacerations/injuries. Dallas said that Cody didn’t want him to see his face but Dallas persisted and said he looked a mess.
When Dallas walked up to the house Yoda came to greet him and when Dallas said “Hi Yoda” the dog gave him a very quizzical look as Dallas had never seen him before. Kristen was just as puzzled until Dallas informed her of our extended stay. According to Dallas, she wasn’t at all upset by our “freeloading visit”, rather found it quite amusing, especially given the fact that Cody was now out of danger. Dallas said that he would invite them over for a drink, (I suppose Cody will be having soda water!), when we stay, on the farm, not in Kenton this time around, on our way back to Vancouver, so that we actually have a chance to meet our unknowing hosts!
Too crazy to be made up!!!! Can't wait to hear all about it in person!!!!
That is why you should not eat cows they are too sweet!!! xx
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