Our social circle left yesterday afternoon but I think it will be a few days before I recover from all the excitement. My brain is a bit foggy and not at all creative but I want to do a blow by blow before I forget anything. During the long lonely days ahead I’ll be able to read back and relive the fun.
I don’t think I mentioned it in my last post, but Olaf, Stephanie, and Freya had a covid test before they came to visit. It was a good peace-of-mind during these weird times. Perhaps we have been slightly paranoid but with US news on the tv it’s hard not to feel concerned.
I think I left off on Monday night after a day of getting ready for them to come and a nice supper together. We were still all a bit tired from being at Kirsten’s so we didn’t stay up until all hours of the night. Tuesday we hung around the house until it got warm enough to swim. Luckily we have some Norse blood in us otherwise we might have chickened out. Carm came in too, so I guess his Italian blood makes him hardy as well. The water was frigid and by the time Freya got out her lips were blue.
Olaf had brought some ‘banana bread’ beer which we sampled in the afternoon… not sure that I’d buy it but it was fun to try. It tasted exactly like banana bread soaked in beer - very strange!
Time passed quickly and soon, just as supper was almost ready, Kirsten and Shawn arrived. There was a big empty spot where Graham would have been, but he was waiting on his covid-19 test results so couldn’t join us. It means we’ll have to all get together another time for a complete sibling night!
I was at the counter under the window doing something while behind me I could hear the chatter of everyone gathered around the island - a huge wave of happiness passed over me, large enough that it was like all the small satisfactions that I missed out on these last few months had backed up and suddenly released. At that moment I had a sudden flash of clarity of what it must be like for Mom to have everyone home.
We stayed gathered around the table for ages after we finished eating. We were going to head to the soft seat area but Olaf had a beer tasting planned for us. He had brought a selection of IPA’s from Quebec for us to try. He made a grid for scoring and capturing a word from each of us to describe the beer - supercalafragalishous is now permanently engraved on my pine table! We had lots of laughs as Kirsten doesn’t like beer (many scores of 1/10), and Shawn isn’t a big fan of IPA’s.
As our butts fell asleep we left the hard chairs behind (no pun intended, or maybe it was) for the softer sofa cushions. Soon we were watching funny videos on youtube. We showed them a few of our favorite outrageous Little Britain videos and then everyone else shared their funnies. We stayed up too late…
We had a little mermaid in our pool!
Wednesday we gathered around the island for a freestyle breakfast of eggs and toast, crowned with fresh out of the oven cinnamon buns. Kirsten and Shawn left soon after, leaving us to visit with Olaf, Steph and Freya. We had a swim, some hotdogs, and then Olaf gathered up all their stuff and left for Mom & Dad’s.
BTW… bacon-wrapped hotdogs are a thing… and yes, they turn out awesome in the actifry!
We were sad to see them go, but I’ll be honest, I fell asleep on the sofa soon after… Steph & Olaf must feel exhausted - they’ll need a vacation after their vacation :-0
The dogs didn’t want to be too far from us when we were at the table, but with Spike taking over Adia’s crate she was left with Spike’s tiny bed. Even Spike was in party mode, wanting to hang out with us. Unusual for him - perhaps he’s feeling the isolation as well. Adia was good although she took a fright of Olaf. To his credit he spent lots of time trying to ease her silly mind.
Headline tonight: US sets record with more than 50,000 cases in one day. 2,836,873 cases with 131,477 deaths in the US. There are a total of 104,772 (103,918 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,642 (8,566 yesterday) deaths today.
“All things that love the sun are out of doors;
The sky rejoices in the morning's birth;
The grass is bright with rain-drops;—on the moors
The hare is running races in her mirth;
And with her feet she from the plashy earth
Raises a mist, that, glittering in the sun,
Runs with her all the way, wherever she doth run.”
~William Wordsworth
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