Things Are looking Up

It has been some time, two months according to my stats, since I last wrote. I am verging on saying wrote anything meaningful. However, I mainly write for me although seeing there has been past interest in my nattering is rather nice. It is also a bit guilt inducing. It seems my lack of writing jumped into not reading the posts of some excellent bloggers. I stick to only 2-3. Perhaps my viewing will open up again once I have one foot firmly stepping forward.

The photo has nothing to do with travel! This is the new addition to our family, 6 month old Musa – he is my daughter’s but has adopted me as his main person. I do have a video of him ‘helping’ me pack, just have to figure out how to grab a still picture.

All this begs the question, why? Definitely lack of movement was primary. Perhaps some jealousy that there are others out there doing what I want to do. Travel, marvel, revel….you know, all those hits at the emotions when something exciting, frustrating, NEW, occurs. I just did not have the monetary means to go anywhere much further than my backyard. By the time January hit I was even less inclined to do anything besides be a slug, or at best a bear deep in hibernation. Rather silly considering I live on the west coast of Canada, on an island of sublime beauty, where snow is a foul word. And that should explain part of my malaise, we did get snow. It did get cold.

I did a quick weather statistics check, it seems that the period of Feb 1 – 15 this year Victoria had “…the most snowfall out of all major Canadian cities in February” which is quite significant for here. Even our cherry blossoms, for which we are to an extreme proudd of despite their not being native to the area, came out late. Or regressed. So it was a miserable winter. I had nowhere to run off to for a break in the monotony. I was bored.

I was also possibly sick. The jury is still out on that. And my knee still hurts from a fall in November 2017. (Torn menisci – I never do things by halves – on the last day of my 3 month trip in Vietnam and China) Of course the main suggestion was to slow down. I tried working instead. That was a bust. Yet I still wanted to do something. As I knew I would be flying to Toronto late May I started planning for that with, finally, a trip to Churchill. Sadly, that part was once again derailed – fortunately not the actual railway this time. Just enough changes in what is available to make me put that trip on hold. However, I did know I would be visiting family in two cities. All in an effort to travel even if on a very tight, frayed budget.

Except even that was sidetracked! I started to feel as though something was telling me to stay home. Upon reflection it became apparent I was just jumping into solo travel again – my favourite. It seems trying to surprise an academic (my daughter is a PhD candidate) can be a problem when various conferences are being held. My plan to visit for two weeks was thwarted when she told me she had been accepted to do a presentation in Vancouver! During the time I would be where she lives. So, I will look after her pets while she and my son in-law visit ‘home’ after being away nearly five years. Not a complete loss. We will still do things in her city and area upon her return. I am pushing to visit the site she is focussing her research on.

I shall sally forth. The plan is to visit back and forth between Kingston and Kitchener for about two months. If anyone has suggestions of free things to do in Kitchener-Waterloo, Toronto, or even Kingston (although I may have exhausted everything of interest to me on my last extended stay there) let me know!