How will I get my life back on track?

Here I sit at my computer once again. It was suffocatingly hot and humid five minutes ago and now it's pouring rain and much cooler. My husband had just painted a piece of metal and put it in the sun to dry, and had to run around the workshop to put it in out of the rain. In the meantime he had been shovelling dirt to fill the back of the workshop where the land dropped off steeply. And here I sit at my computer.

I'm working at writing but it's not going well. I do surveys, get tons of email every day (not just spam), update facebook once in a while, and what I enjoy most is reviewing books that are sent to me.  This works well toward the writing itch, but the itch still persists.  Medications are making me feel sluggish. What I'd really like to be doing is running around, playing volleyball or badminton, or something!  Of course, since I broke my ankle very badly 3 years ago, that probably isn't the best idea I've had, but I should be walking at least.  I'd like to take a trip, just a driving trip, no fancy locations or anything. Maybe to Alaska or the Yukon, Northwest Territories, after all, we're already halfway there!

Wouldn't it be great to drive across Canada!  I love where I am, it's beautiful, no big city woes but no public transportation... I wish all these surveys didn't make me feel like a poor Canadian by driving my car!  After all, I'm in a rural area.  It reminds me of when I was working.  We kept getting emails to ride bicycles instead of driving!  It took me 1 hr to drive, 2 hrs by public transportation which meant by the time I got on the last bus my transfer was expired!  How was I in my 60s going to ride a bicycle?  My friend and I finally got the point across that not too many people who worked in Vancouver could afford to live there and they should be targeting the people in Vancouver who were driving to work, especially the exchange students who often drove very fancy cars.  Of course, not all exchange students could afford cars, so I shouldn't put the onus on them.  My grandmother used to ride her bike when she was in her 60s I think, but I know she brought it out, pumped up the tires, and rode it on her 80th birthday around her yard, sloping and grassy I think the road would have been easier, but there she was, in 1972, riding it like she had been riding all along.  This was a bike that was bought for her in 1936, no speeds, just what you could pump with your legs!  No handbrakes, you braked with the pedals. The only kind of bike I've ever ridden too, now that I think of it.

My grandmother was an amazing woman. Everyone called her Amazing Grace, since Grace was her name. She was a second mother to me, especially when my children were young and we lived only a mile apart.  My mother had young children at home still and we didn't get much chance to visit.  Around Christmas each year my mother & I would make arrangements to meet at Woodwards in downtown Vancouver.  She lived in South Vancouver, I lived in North Vancouver with three kids in tow.  I would take the bus, it would go up the mountain, down the mountain, across the mountain, up the mountain, down the mountain, across the Lions Gate Bridge, through Stanley park and finally get us downtown.  We did have to make a transfer somewhere but I don't remember where.  One time we were going to meet at Hamilton Harvey, Main St. and Kingsway.  We had three transfers to make by then.  My son was tired of it all at the age of two, stuck his arms straight out and grabbed each door and I couldn't budge him! What a trip we had that day!  Then after finally getting on the bus, by the time we got to the right bus stop I didn't recognize it and stayed on the bus, which turned on to Kingsway (our old highway to the US). I grabbed my kids and went up to the driver who said the next stop was a few blocks away and I burst into tears! Horrors. He pulled the bus over, helped me get across Kingsway, and told the bus driver that happened to be there where I was going and asked if he would make sure we got off safely.  Those were the days!  I have often thought of that bus driver through the years, how kind he was.

Well, enough tears and complaints! On with the day, whatever it may bring.  It has stopped raining, no more thunder, and is considerably cooler. Have a good day, everyone! I've decided I will go into town.