Another beginning

I haven't sat down to the blog in over 2 weeks.  A lot has happened.  I spent 5 days looking after 2 old dogs and house sitting for a friend of a friend who lives on the shore of Kal Lake.  From that I learned that although I miss living on water, it's not worth taking on 2 sick old dogs just to be there.

I returned to my little house in downtown Vernon and life alone in it.  Jay, May and the girls have moved out.  They haven't bought a place of their own yet; they are living in a suite in a local hotel.  The stress of the girls' starting school again, the search for a home to buy and May's worries about my having to live in the midst of it all finally became too much.  They are presently staying in a suite she found in a local hotel that is owned by Koreans and run by Filipinos.  That must be some kind of 'going around coming around'.   They have known a lot of work and difficult times in the last few years, so I'm sure things will work out.  I feel rather hollow sitting here alone in the house after not having seen any of them in over a week.  We had some raucous good times together.  I'm sure we will have more, just not at such close quarters for a while.

I have spent the last 2 days playing house for the first time in almost 15 months.  Of course Jay, May and the girls have left lots of their stuff here, including so many shoes I would need a calculator to count them; it's all in one bedroom, a large closet in the basement and Jim's Eccentricity.  The basement room and bathroom had been bursting with the girls clothes and makeup since Jay finished it, so it's fun to see it almost naked for the first time.  I can't complain about being well fed by May for over a year, but I have enjoyed rediscovering the kitchen and starting to cook again.  If I fall back into a diet of nachos and salad and chicken, yams and potatoes baked in the toaster oven again, I may long for May's food.  In fact I'm sure I will.

The last roses of summer in the yard.

The most recent addition to the front yard, a driftwood creature I lugged up from the beach the last time I was in Victoria.

The Search Is On

Jay just came into my room to show me the realtors' pages for two houses that he is quite keen on. He went to see them alone because May is working.  A first house is a big step. Talking with him, a memory of building our first one overwhelmed me for a moment, the intensity of the time.  Each decision about the drilling of the well, the placement of the septic, the Rumsford fireplace, the size of the rocks for the heat sink, the amount of overhang of the roof, the materials to make the living room floor a passive solar heat sink ...  While they were in Korea, they saved quite a bit of money so they have a good down payment and Jay has been pre approved for a mortgage, but realty seems to be on the move in the Okanagan, so they are among the many would be buyers.  It seems as if people who can't afford to buy in Vancouver are looking in Victoria and here.  

I can't put my finger on it, but there's something stirring in the girls this week.  I wouldn't call it a sysmic shift, but they're rising from the basement before noon.  School starts next week.  Jin will join Min at Seaton High School.  Imagine, their second year of school in Canada, in English.  Teenage girls appear to be doing nothing, sleeping from 2:00am until 2:00pm, but something's happening there even if what it is "ain't exactly clear".   And it ain't.  The family has done a lot in a year.  

Living in the wake of their turmoil and progress can be exhausting, even irritating, but it's not boring.