triumphgal

August 9, 2026

Is winding.

It was a good day of sorting and setting aside pics etc for Moms gathering and other people.

This was one of my faves, my cousin, Andrea

August 8, 2026

It was definitely too smoky today to do anything outside, but I had conversations with my cousin Kim and then my brother before channelling my energy into more sorting, and I managed to empty two more totes worth of treasures. It’s an interesting walk down memory Lane as some of the things I have forgotten I even did. Play bills from shows I was in and tickets to events. I definitely have packed a lot into this 60+ years of mine. I am being quite brutal about getting rid of paper, but also sorting into specific things; a container full of my theatre world, another of music fest, and concerts etc. 

These are some of the interesting things I found

I have been bingeing Homeland in the background.

August 7, 2026

My calendar now has terrible reminders as every four weeks I had marked Mom pills and there’s no point even whiting them out because I will see the white out and my brain will still register. It’s the little things.

I met with a new client first thing this morning and I think he’s going to be very easy to work with. He has a cool business, making energy drinks from actual real juice. I look forward to trying it. It’s called 96 drink lab

I spent some time getting through to Telus to find out how much the buyout for Mom’s phone would be and then negotiated with Lukas a good price for him. She only got the phone in March so he is happy to upgrade to an iPhone 16. He’s such a sweetie. He sent the money right away and said if I needed more to let him know.

Before I left the office, I took my tote full of items to put into the shredding bin, and as I was going through, I found my deposit book from my contracting company. It made me smile and the deposits made me realize how little I was charging back then.

After work, I stopped to see Lukas and called Telus to officially close mom’s phone. While I was doing that, Rae-Anne went online and signed into mom’s iCloud to download pictures into a shareable folder which we then shared into the family group text so they could download things that they wanted.

Well, Lukas and I were talking. He left the room and Rae mentioned that he is so excited about the new phone that he decided to pay for it rather than go see his cousin in Vancouver for a few days. It was then we connected that I will be going to Salt Spring and staying with his cousins mother in their cottage when I go to the wedding. By the end of the whole discussion, we had figured out that Lukas and I are going to take a road trip and I am very excited. I had lost my drive to go to Salt Spring after all of the experiences this last little while but now I am looking forward to it.

I came home and gave Rosie a call to make sure we could stay with her each end of the trip and then messaged with Roger’s sister-in-law, Sandy to make sure it was OK that I brought Lukas over for two nights as well to be my plus one of the wedding. It turns out she will be in Vancouver on the Friday to see her daughter Haylee and will bring Lukas back with her to the island. It is all working out perfectly, and I feel remarkably less anxious than I was after deciding to change the date of the gathering and make the plan to go to the coast. I am super looking forward to a road trip with Lukas.

Now I am grateful that we are not on any wildfire alerts around here, but the smoke is the worst today of all

August 6, 2026

I didn’t get a lot of paperwork done today as I was dealing with mom and brother stuff but I did finally make a decision to move the gathering to the Friday night following the internment. I booked the Heid-out for catering and Dave Prinn for live music and my whole chest relaxed, and my shoulders softened.

I had a really good long talk with Heidi after the Rotary lunch about whether I should accept the position of assistant coordinator for the polio plus Society or not. We got into a big talk about the things going on in my life right now and she was awesome about both things. She and I are very similar in lots of ways as far as just speaking truth, although she may be a little kinder than I am. She told me I may struggle with the position offered because many times in organizations people think they want assistance, but then don’t wanna let go of what they have been doing by themselves or I could end up that they then decide to leave the position and now it’s all mine. So I should think about it. As far as the rest of the kerfuffle of this last while she looked me straight in the eye and said you are surrounded by love and when all this is over, you just flick your finger and make the others go away. She told me I was a loveable person I needed not to forget that. That really helped me to go make the finishing touches on the event for Mom. If it’s being left on my plate, then I shall serve up the plate that I want and what I want is to have everything happen on one day so that then we can spend the rest of the weekend visiting with friends and family. Rhiannon and Roger are going to put on a pancake breakfast the next morning for anyone who is in town and it just sounds perfect.

The speaker at Rotary lunch with Mike McPhee, who is the executive Director of Visit Cranbrook and he had some very interesting stats about the tourism industry in our area

There was also a presentation about our society project to build the seniors residences which broke ground today and so far we have $76,000 in donations towards it. We have a benefactor who is matching up to $100,000 which is pretty amazing.

I was geared up for my appointment at 3 o’clock to get my well done, but the Notary ended up having a tough week and getting behind schedule so we rescheduled for Monday and I headed off to meet Penny for an early dinner and visit. I think it’s the first time we’ve managed to do that with purpose rather than just ending up at Rotary conventions together. We met at the fire and oak and had cold brew martinis and delicious food and hours of conversation. She was a brat and made like she was going to the washroom but paid the tab. I had already decided I was going to because she was being such a good shoulder for me. We had a good laugh and a hug and I came home just to unwind as it was too smoky to go to summer sounds in the park.

August 5, 2026

I spent the morning at the bank canceling my two small safety deposit boxes and getting one medium sized one. It took way longer than I thought but 1155 is mine and I shall not misplace the keys!

I made it back mid lunch party for Ashley who is done work at the GroundFloor on the 14th. She is moving back to St Albert and I am sad.

I did most of my filings and sorted my cupboard at the office before sitting down to write a big email to Greg and Kym with all the financial details of my executor job. I suggested that we have the gathering catered at Rae’s after the internment on the Friday and just have the weekend to visit with everyone. Rae suggested we have a pancake breakfast and early dinner together on the Saturday. I am awaiting their response and have reached out to those I know are coming from out of town. I am so happy to hear that my three closest high school friends, Julie, Sherry and Sue are coming for the weekend. I need all the love right now.

I stopped for wings and had a great visit with Mike and Heather Nix. He’s the owner of F&B and they are the cutest newlyweds

I joined the family for Spider-Man Brand New Day in 3D. It was good but I look forward to seeing it in regular on my TV as I learned that I don’t love the bokeh effect. I do love me some Hulk and Black Widow though, and don’t get me started about Jean Grey!

August 4, 2026

I actually woke up feeling very motivated. I hopped in the hot tub and then the shower before gathering all the diamonds, I have with intention to pick up my safety deposit box key at the office and take them to the bank. As it turns out, I couldn’t find the key anywhere and was getting very frustrated so I just went and got in line at the bank and opened a new box to put them in with intention to find my key and cancel the other one rather than pay the $270 to have it drilled out.

Once back at the office, I got an email that my results of my x-ray were on my health portal. Imagine my surprise to find that my lungs were clear. I am going to have a talk with my doctor and find out why I was put on a double dose of antibiotics and told that I had pneumonia in my upper right lung when nothing showed up on the x-ray. There is definitely a mistake somewhere.

I focussed on getting work done and was partway through running a payroll when I noticed an email come in from my sister-in-law, which was unusual. It was a copy of the Will from my stepmother Donna. This is not a place. I would normally talk about those things, but I am struggling. It turns out that the property was left to Greg and the remainder of the state to Sandra. My understanding from all conversations was that we had both been left out of the Will so it was a terrible shock. I called Rosie and had a good cry and then called Rae-Anne who came over to the office and talked me through all the feels. To me this is just proof that Mrs. B was not in her right mind when she remade the Will in 2019. What really hurts is that I was not informed of any of this. I am still trying to process how to keep relation.

I finished my payroll and then went and sat in the red chairs in Rae’s yard before we headed down to F&B for some food

I stopped afterwards and bought a nice bottle of crown for Tracey as it is her 60th birthday today. She arrived home just after I did and we have spent the last few hours sitting on our deck, enjoying a sip and good deep conversation. It has helped me to let go of enough to be able to sleep tonight and decide what I am going to do in the near future.

My heart is hurting.

I found this card from Jake and sent him the pics to which he replied “you still haven’t “ I love my son

I did manage to pull off a little prank at the office today as my poinsettia was struggling to stay alive. I swapped it out with the fancy one upfront, but before I left, no one had noticed.

One of the treats I ordered myself was a new quip toothbrush, and I love the packaging that it came in

August 3, 2026

The times and details of the day are irrelevant as what matters most is how much better I feel even though it’s weird because I haven’t coughed up anything I hope that’s not a stage still to come. I have continued my sorting, even bringing in two totes from the shed. Yes folks there is more stuff out there that needs to be dealt with. One of them I emptied completely, cleaned and put back everything sewing related that I had come across; material and batting and edging and elastics and strap material and patterns from the 80s and 90s and then I took the whole thing over to Zoe, as her Mom, Monica, had said she’d gotten her first sewing machine.

On the way there, I stopped at my office to get some work done while a client and I were both available at the same time. I don’t mind that because it makes it easier for tomorrow.

I did have a nice visit with Monica catching up on the world as we do on their nice new surfaced deck. I didn’t get a very great visit with Galen as he arrived back home just as I was getting ready to leave. I have been trying to stick to an eating schedule and not be drinking so I just had that one glass of wine while I was there with Monica.

I had a Dr Oetkre fungi pizza in the freezer, so I put my leftover taco meat and some tomatoes on top and made in the oven and it was so good. I could only eat a third of it but now I have lots for lunch and dinner tomorrow.

I have a good sized bin to take for shredding tomorrow that included my tax returns back to 2003. I still have not found my Will. I wonder if I actually did put it in my safe deposit box. I might have to go check that out tomorrow. It seems strange to me, though that I would’ve put that in there, but not the diamonds that I have.

Yesterday, my neighbour Tracey came and said that she was going to do my lawn on that side of the trailer that was getting out of control because I had run out of gas and although I did go get gas, I have been sick since. I just went out today and had a look and she does a far better job of it than I do. It looks just beautiful. I am one very grateful woman.

I had a nice long message back-and-forth with my Texan Kathy about our friend Ginger as they had all gone out for dinner together. She sent me a nice picture. Ginger lost her mom in March and I guess the antianxiety drug drugs they gave her are reacting poorly with her cancer treatment treatments, causing her to have a challenge with words. I am very worried that the first time I met all these people in Italy will be the last time that I see them all together so I am making a plan to see if I can get an inexpensive flight to go to Texas, even for an extended weekend or tied onto the beginning of my trip to Salt Spring as I can go free m Vancouver cheaper probably. I will look into it all tomorrow and Kathy said I can stay with them.

There is a lot going on right now, for sure

August 2, 2026

I had a hard time staying asleep last night, but then I had a good sleep in so I suppose that all balanced out. It was less smoky today, but I still didn’t spend much time outdoors at all. I got an incredible amount on indoors though and 3/4 of my house is clean and mostly organized even washed all the floors and anything left to be organized is now in the living room so I’m back to that but it’s a lot less than previously. I even set up Mom’s cabinet as my space for travel treasures next to the cabin. I already had with sports things on it and of course it’s in my Lego room.

I made a delicious dinner again and I’m always grateful that I learned about the ground meat cooker tool from Diane. i’m so glad I got a decent amount of groceries as I am enjoying making food at home again.

I saw a post from Scott Hyland’s wife, Veronica, on his Facebook page that he had chosen MAID and left this earthly coil on July 29th. It really was an honour to have been his friend during the time I lived on Salt Spring. I can still hear his voice ringing in my ears and was grateful to be under his direction for Under Milkwood. He did leave a legacy on film and on stage. I had just come across this picture the other day, and he’s the third person no longer with us from that one photo.

Another thing I wanted to call Mom about. She admired him so

August 2, 2026

It’s almost hard to remember everything from today as the wi d is blowing so hard, it smells lukewarm a campfire outside and Wasa, Ta Ta Creek bad surroundings are being evacuated. This means my cousins and friends out Meadowbrook way are on alert. So soon after the alert was removed from Kimberley too

I inadvertently upset my dentist today when I got a make an appointment reminder for Mom. It was sweet to get that response though.

I cleaned a lot today. Washed all my ruggables and mopped bedroom floor before putting it back together.

I also completed my Turkish lamp that I started mid May; I like it

Dinner was delicious

I believe I may have been sick for a while all right. I have had so much energy and desire to get things done. I also haven’t had a drink in three days nor a smoke in 2 not that I haven’t craved but I am determined to be stronger than the weakest parts of me.